Editing Sergio Leone (section)

=== ''Leningrad: The 900 Days'' ===
While finishing work on ''Once Upon a Time in America'' in 1982, Leone was impressed with [[Harrison Salisbury]]'s non-fiction book ''The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad'', and he planned on adapting the book as a war epic. Although no formal script had been completed or leaked, Leone came up with the opening scene and basic plot. According to the documentary ''Once Upon a Time, Sergio Leone'', the film opened ''[[in medias res]]'' as the camera goes from focusing on a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] hiding from the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]]' artillery fire to panning hundreds of feet away to show the [[German Army (1935–1945)|German Army]] [[Panzer division (Wehrmacht)|Panzer divisions]] approaching the walls of the city. The plot was to focus on an American photographer on assignment (whom Leone wanted to be played by [[Robert De Niro]]) becoming trapped in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] as the [[Luftwaffe|German Luftwaffe]] begin to bombard the city. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes romantically involved with a Soviet woman, whom he later impregnates, as they attempt to survive the [[Siege of Leningrad|prolonged siege]] and the [[NKVD|secret police]], because relationships with foreigners are forbidden. According to Leone, "In the end, the cameraman dies on the day of the liberation of the city, when he is currently filming the surrender of the Germans. And the girl is aware of his death by chance seeing a movie news: the camera sees it explode under a shell".<ref>{{cite web |title=Les 900 Jours de Leningrad | work=Histoires De Tournages |url=http://www.devildead.com/histoiresdetournages/index.php?idart=30 |access-date=10 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081004142832/http://www.devildead.com/histoiresdetournages/index.php?idart=30 |archive-date=4 October 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>

By 1989, Leone set the film's budget at $100&nbsp;million, and had secured half of that amount in financing from independent backers from the Soviet Union. He had convinced Ennio Morricone to compose the film score, and [[Tonino Delli Colli]] was tapped to be the [[cinematographer]]. Shooting was scheduled to begin sometime in 1990. The project was canceled when Leone died two days before he was to officially sign on for the film. [[Alex Cox]] offered to replace Leone as director, but was unable to secure the remaining $50&nbsp;million required to produce the film.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cox, Alex|author-link=Alex Cox|title=10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western|publisher=Oldcastle Books|page=388 |date=2009|isbn=978-1842433041}}</ref>