 Director Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in playing protagonist Amsterdam Vallon, a young leader of an Irish-American street gang, and thus Miramax Films got involved with financing the project.Nonetheless production on the film was plagued by blown-out budgets and producer-director disagreements, resulting in an eight-month shoot and, at $103 million, the most expensive film Scorsese had ever made.