Robert De Niro is set to reprise his iconic character from the 1976 film Taxi Driver in a new ad campaign for Uber, a move writer Paul Schrader isn’t happy with.
What did Paul Schrader say?
In a recent post on his official Facebook page, Schrader — who wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, which also starred De Niro — said that he couldn’t understand why “Bob” was doing the ads, and hopes that he never sees it.
“Ouch. Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning,” said Schrader. “But I haven’t seen it. If I’m lucky I never will.”
De Niro’s ad campaign will see him reprising his role as Travis Bickle and riffing on some of the more famous lines in the film, according to World of Reel. The ads will be filmed in London this week, although it’s unknown exactly when they’ll begin making their way out to the public.
Originally released in 1976, Taxi Driver is often considered one of the most culturally significant films of all time, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994 by the U.S. Library of Congress for being considered “culturally, hsitorically, or aesthetically” significant.
