Paul Schrader "Taxi Driver: The Screenplay" Traycased Signed Lettered Edition "Z" of 52

Personally signed by Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro.

SIGNED LETTERED EDITION OF ONLY 52 PRODUCED

Gauntlet Press 2018. Paul Schrader "Taxi Driver: The Screenplay". Signed Lettered Edition. Limited to only 52, each one personally signed by Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro directly onto each of the special title pages of the book. This is Letter "Z". Traycased. Hardcover book with dust-jacket as issued. Black ribbon marker. Archival acid-free Mylar sleeve. 

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of this game changing and iconic film, this definitive printing of Paul Schrader’s legendary screenplay features an interview between Schrader and director Martin Scorsese, plus a brand-new interview with star Robert De Niro. Includes extensive bonus material, such as behind-the-scenes photos and reflective essays.

The book is edited by Mike Watt.

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological drama thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in a morally decaying New York City following the Vietnam War, it stars Robert De Niro as veteran Marine and taxi driver Travis Bickle, whose mental state deteriorates as he works nights in the city. The film also features Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks (in his first feature film role).

Filming began in summer 1975, with actors taking pay cuts to ensure that the project could be completed on its low budget of $1.9 million. For the score, Bernard Herrmann composed what would be his final score. The music was finished mere hours before his death, and the film is dedicated to him.

Theatrically released by Columbia Pictures on February 8, 1976, the film was critically and commercially successful despite generating controversy for both its graphic violence in the film's climax, and for the casting of 12-year-old Foster as a child prostitute. The film received numerous accolades, including the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival and four nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (for De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (for Foster).

Although Taxi Driver generated further controversy for inspiring John Hinckley Jr.'s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the film has remained popular. It is considered one of the greatest films ever made, and one of the most culturally significant and inspirational of its time. In 2022, Sight & Sound named it the 29th-best film ever in its decennial critics' poll, and the 12th-greatest film of all time on its directors' poll, tied with Barry Lyndon. In 1994, the film was designated as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Paul Schrader

Paul Joseph Schrader (born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Schrader has also worked extensively as a director: his 23 films include Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997), and First Reformed (2017), with the last of these earning him his first Academy Award nomination. Schrader's work frequently depicts "man in a room" stories which feature isolated, troubled men confronting an existential crisis.

Raised in a strict Calvinist family, Schrader attended Calvin College before pursuing film studies at UCLA on the encouragement of film critic Pauline Kael. He then worked as a film scholar and critic, publishing the book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (1972) before transitioning to screenwriting in 1974. The success of Taxi Driver in 1976 brought greater attention to his work, and Schrader began directing his own films, beginning with Blue Collar (co-written with his brother, Leonard Schrader). Schrader has described three of his recent films as a loose trilogy: First Reformed (2017), The Card Counter (2021), and Master Gardener (2022).

Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese ( born November 17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received many accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. He has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1997, the Film Society of Lincoln Center tribute in 1998, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2010, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2012. Four of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Scorsese received a Master of Arts degree from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 1968. His directorial debut, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), was accepted into the Chicago Film Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s, Scorsese's films, much influenced by his Italian-American background and upbringing in New York City, centered on macho-posturing men and explore crime, machismo, nihilism and Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption. His trademark styles of extensive use of slow motion and freeze frames, voice-over narration, graphic depictions of extreme violence and liberal use of profanity were first shown in Mean Streets (1973).

Scorsese won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with Taxi Driver (1976), which starred Robert De Niro as a disturbed Vietnam Veteran. De Niro became associated with Scorsese through eight more films including New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Irishman (2019). In the following decades, he garnered box office success with a series of collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio, including Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010), and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). He worked with both De Niro and DiCaprio on Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). He also directed After Hours (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), The Age of Innocence (1993), Kundun (1997), Hugo (2011), and Silence (2016).

On television, he has directed episodes for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014) and Vinyl (2016), as well as the HBO documentary Public Speaking (2010) and the Netflix docu-series Pretend It's a City (2021). He has also directed several rock documentaries including The Last Waltz (1978), No Direction Home (2005), and Shine a Light (2008). He has explored film history in the documentaries A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995) and My Voyage to Italy (1999). An advocate for film preservation and restoration, he has founded three nonprofit organizations: The Film Foundation in 1990, the World Cinema Foundation in 2007 and the African Film Heritage Project in 2017.

Robert De Niro

Robert Anthony De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director, and film producer. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for eight BAFTA Awards and four Emmy Awards. He was honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2003, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2009, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2011, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025.

De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. He went on to earn two Academy Awards, his first for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in the crime drama The Godfather Part II (1974) followed by Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the biopic drama Raging Bull (1980). He was further Oscar-nominated for his roles in Taxi Driver (1976), The Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

De Niro is known for his dramatic roles in Mean Streets (1973), The King of Comedy (1982), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Goodfellas (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Heat (1995), Casino (1995), Jackie Brown (1997), Joker (2019), and The Irishman (2019) as well as his comedic roles in Midnight Run (1988), Wag the Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), and The Intern (2015). He directed and acted in both the crime drama A Bronx Tale (1993) and the spy film The Good Shepherd (2006). On television, he portrayed Bernie Madoff in the HBO film The Wizard of Lies (2017).

De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Many of De Niro's films are considered classics of American cinema. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" as of 2023.[6] Five films were listed on the AFI's 100 greatest American films of all time.

Gauntlet Press

Welcome to Gauntlet Press, a specialty press devoted to publishing signed limited edition collectibles and tradepaperbacks. While many of the authors we publish fall into the horror, dark fantasy and sci-fi genres we don’t confine ourselves to any particular genre.

We’ve published the likes or Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, F. Paul Wilson, Poppy Z. Brite, Stephen King and in 2013 we completed a ten-volume set of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone scripts.

All of our limited editions are signed by the author (in the case of the Serling Twilight Zone scripts this was impossible. His wife, Carol Serling, signed tipsheets for each book.), printed on acid-free paper (which won’t yellow) and specially bound. They are collectibles for fans of an author or a particular book.

With our signed limited editions we don’t simply publish a book with the author’s signature (as do too many specialty presses). We are not an assembly line publisher releasing a dozen or more books per year. We work with the author closely to produce a definitive edition of each of our books. Many of our authors have provided deleted chapters, alternate endings, handwritten first drafts, sketches and interior art (Clive Barker and Marie Lu are accomplished artists and Ray Bradbury is famous for both his “doodles” and oil paintings), introductions and more. Our authors choose the artist for the dustjacket and have final approval of cover art. Our goal is to provide an edition of a book the author can be proud of and customers feel in truly unique.