 The original script was vetoed by producer Stephen Bach (II) (qv)  after he told Martin Scorsese (qv) and Robert De Niro (qv) that  Jake LaMotta (qv) was "a cockroach". De Niro and Scorsese took a  few weeks in Italy to do an uncredited rewrite of the script, during  which time the two found some sympathetic aspects of La Motta, which  eventually satisfied the producers.