While a Taxi Driver sequel has oft been mooted over the years, it has never looked as though it might really come to fruition. However, it is a prospect that still interests Robert De Niro today…
"I had that idea," said De Niro, when the prospect of revisiting Travis Bickle was raised in a recent interview with The Guardian .
"I talked to Marty [ Scorsese ] and Paul [ Schrader ] and we did take a shot at something, whether it was an outline or a script, I forget. But somehow we didn't feel it was right and it didn't take off.
"But I'd like to see where Travis is today. There was something about the guy – all that rage and alienation, that's what the city can do to you. I mean Marty and I are from New York, and even we can feel alienated."
It has of course been hypothesised that Travis actually dies at the end of the original film, and the closing sequence that sees him back behind the wheel is actually just a fantasy.
"Well, that's an interesting theory," responds De Niro. "I know that was not the intention, but it's as valid as anything." Consider the door left open...
