The director’s “other production commitments” have superseded ‘An Afternoon with SCTV’
13 May 2021 | Calum Slingerland | Exclaim
Following reports that Martin Scorsese‘s long-awaited SCTV documentary for Netflix had been shelved, it has now been confirmed that An Afternoon with SCTV is not off the table entirely, but just a little lower on the director’s slate of productions.
Earlier this week, longtime television writer Bill Brioux pointed to a Facebook fan community’s discussion of the special’s whereabouts, which included a comment attributed to writer and cast member Joe Flaherty that indicated An Afternoon with SCTV had been shelved.
Today, Brioux confirmed with Toronto’s Insight Productions, who shot the 2018 SCTV cast reunion for the documentary, that this is not the case. A spokesperson for Insight shared, “The project has not been shelved, just delayed due to Mr. Scorsese’s other production commitments.”
Flaherty had written in a comment (archived below), “I spoke to our producer, Andrew Alexander, yesterday and he confirmed that the special has been shelved. He gave me the reasons and confirmed what [Dave Thomas] had told me a few days ago. To say I’m deflated would be an understatement.”
Upon the post’s circulation, fans launched a petition to save the special, which has since collected over 400 signatures as of press time.
Scorsese’s recent projects includes Killers of the Flower Moon, a film about New York Dolls’ David Johansen, and spending quality time on TikTok. His doc series Pretend It’s a City premiered on Netflix this past January.
Yesterday (May 12) marked three years to the date that the cast of SCTV reunited for An Afternoon with SCTV at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre.
The event — which featured the group’s Flaherty, Thomas, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short — was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.
May 13 was the day of the reunion, not May 12.