For Martin Scorsese, the story of his 1985 yuppie horror-comedy After Hours began on Thanksgiving Day 1983, when Paramount Pictures chief Barry Diller informed the director that the studio was essentially dropping out of The Last Temptation of Christ, Scorsese’s long-gestating passion project.
Scorsese felt utterly demoralized. “In pulling the plug on this project on which they had already spent millions of dollars, they were sending me a very clear message,” he says today. “And the message was: go away.” Then his lawyer handed him a script called A Night in Soho. The screenwriter, Joseph Minion, was a young unknown. But a familiar name was attached: Amy Robinson, who had a memorable role in Scorsese’s 1973 breakout, Mean Streets. She was developing the project with her producing partner, the actor Griffin Dunne. Scorsese was riveted by the tale’s many unexpected twists. “It was like a Kafka novel set right around the corner from where I was living,” says Scorsese, who had recently moved into a loft in Tribeca.
