Report: Scorsese Stalls Bill Clinton Documentary

Famed director Martin Scorsese has shelved a partly finished documentary about Bill Clinton over disagreements with the former U.S. president over control of the project, The New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper said the film was put aside indefinitely with the Clinton camp reluctant to provide fodder for critics ahead of wife Hillary's anticipated run for the White House in 2016.

People close to Clinton sought to approve interview questions and demanded final cut, but Scorsese's camp rejected the suggestions, the newspaper said, quoting unnamed people briefed on the project.

The New York Times said Matt McKenna, a spokesman for Clinton, denied allegations that the project was stalled over differences about content and control, calling them "inaccurate."

Neither Clinton's office nor HBO, which backed the project, on Friday responded to AFP requests to comment.

A representative at Scorsese's Sikelia Productions was unable to comment, saying that everyone was away in Taiwan preparing for the director's next movie "Silence," which stars Liam Neeson.

It would not be the first time a Clinton film has been scrapped.

In 2013, filmmaker Charles Ferguson dropped plans to make a documentary about Hillary for CNN. NBC Entertainment also scrapped a planned mini series about her shortly afterwards.

Republicans complained the film would promote the former U.S. secretary of state's expected 2016 presidential run and Democrats were reluctant to speak to him, Ferguson said at the time.

"I discovered that nobody, and I mean nobody, was interested in helping me make this film," he wrote.

Campaign watchers expect Hillary Clinton to announce her run for the presidency in the spring and a handful of likely advisers are believed to have signed on to her anticipated campaign already.