Scorsese to produce documentary on Roger Ebert

“These filmmakers have the ability to penetrate the souls of the people they depict,” Roger Ebert wrote when talking about documentary production company Kartemquin. Hopefully for him the company does exactly that when, together with Martin Scorsese and Steve Zaillian, they produce the film version of the critic’s life story.

A new documentary on the 70-year old Roger Ebert inspired by the film critic’s 2011 memoir Life Itself has been announced to be on its way. Steve James, who directed the documentary Hoop Dreams and the recent hit The Interrupters, will helm the project.

It has been over 45 years that Ebert has been reviewing films for the Chicago Sun Times and television, with a Pulitzer Prize and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to show for it.

During his personal life he has suffered from alcoholism and thyroid cancer, which eventually cost him his voice and parts of his jaw. But despite the difficulties, he remains one of the most important voices in the film world who has more than 700,000 Twitter followers. His thumbs up or down can make or break a film.

Now, after decades of watching the works of other actors, Ebert will have his time to shine on the big screen himself.