Robert De Niro and Uber Deny the Actor Is Reviving TAXI DRIVER Character for Uber UK TV Ad
Some rumors have been swirling around the internet claiming that two-time Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro was planning on reviving arguably his most memorable and iconic character, Travis Bickle from the 1976 film Taxi Driver for an upcoming ad. The company Uber has hired De Niro for a U.K. commercial campaign, and they confirmed that De Niro will be seen later in the year in the U.K. as a pitchman for the service, and also let it be known that the campaign does not have a Taxi Driver theme.
“We are filming with Robert De Niro in London for a new Uber UK campaign, which will launch later in the year,” the company said in a statement. De Niro spokesman Stan Rosenfield said the actor is not reviving Bickle for the ad, nor is he using the cabbie character’s famous line: “You talkin’ to me?'”
Reports of the plan for the commercial prompted Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader to slam the idea in a Facebook post. “Ouch. Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning,” Schrader wrote Sept. 20 on Facebook. “But I haven’t seen it. If I’m lucky I never will.”
Luckily, Schrader, who wrote the screenplays for both Taxi Driver and De Niro’s second Oscar-winning film, Raging Bull, has nothing to worry about.
Robert De Niro will next be seen in the Martin Scorsese-directed film Killers of the Flower Moon, out in theaters on October 20th.
via: Variety