Most people would leap at the opportunity to have Martin Scorsese direct their biopic. The Oscar-winning director is routinely praised as an artistic visionary and an icon of the industry, with shelves of awards to prove it. You could sleep at night knowing your story was in very good hands (and being observed under a keen, bushy-browed gaze).

However, not everyone has been swayed by Scorsese’s appeal—particularly the estate of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra. On Wednesday, Scorsese gave a talk at the British Film Institute, revealing that his failed attempt at making a biopic about Ol’ Blue Eyes is still the lost project that burns him the most. “I’m sad about the Sinatra one,” he lamented, per Variety. Scorsese has also voiced interest in making a Dean Martin biopic, but that was ultimately scrapped as well.

Scorsese first signed on to make a biopic about Sinatra back in 2009, deeply interested in the “man who changed the entire image of the Italian-American,” he previously told ShortList. ”And that’s just one thing. Along with his political work, civil rights, the Mob.” The script was co-penned by Phil Alden Robinson and Billy Ray.

A Scorsese-directed Sinatra biopic has a magnum opus quality to it, doesn’t it? One of the most iconic Italian-American directors making a drama about the most famous Italian-American performer? It seems like a match made in music-meets-mob movie heaven.

However, the icon’s family wasn’t interested in the director’s warts-and-all approach to painting a full picture of Sinatra’s life. This past January, Scorsese told The Toronto Sun that the project just couldn’t come together as a result of the estate’s stubbornness, and that he was pulling out of it. “We can't do it,” he said. “I think it is finally over. They won't agree to it. Open it up again ,and I'm there.”

“Certain things are very difficult for a family, and I totally understand,” he continued. “But, if they expect me to be doing it, they can’t hold back certain things. The problem is that the man was so complex. Everybody is so complex—but Sinatra in particular.”