A reunion of some of the biggest names in Mob movies is about to take place with production gearing up on a new flick about mafia hitman Frank ‘ The Irishman ‘ Sheeran.
With the legendary Martin Scorsese at the helm, the upcoming film is being developed at Paramount by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal’s Tribeca Productions. Goodfellas co-star Joe Pesci is sizing up a role as is Harvey Keitel along with Michael Corleone himself, the great Al Pacino.
The Irishman has been in development for some time and with the latest script completed by Steven Zaillian, the process of financing and pre-production can now begin.
Based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, the former gun for hire confessed his wrongful deeds over five years of recorded interviews with the lawyer turned author in the hopes of some form of redemption. The title is drawn from the words uttered by Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa when he first met Frank Sheeran, referring to the blood splatter on the walls and floors of his victim’s murders.
The book reveals how Hoffa was said to be involved in the assassination of JFK and by Sheeran‘s own admission, confessed to pulling the trigger and murdering Hoffa in 1975 at the behest of Mafia boss Russell Bufalino, ending years of speculation over his demise.
With De Niro an acting icon, he’s set the bar for mobster characters and it will be fun to see the clout he brings to the role of the conflicted hitman. Martin Scorsese works best in films of this genre and his last collaboration with De Niro and Pesci was in1995’s Casino, this new flick could be on a par with their mega-hit Goodfellas.
At one stage a companion story was suggested by writer Eric Roth that would juxtapose the film’s footage with the work of Scorsese and De Niro, but plans for that are now on hold with the primary focus on making The Irishman.
Check out an interview by MTV in which Robert De Niro talks about the upcoming film here:
Production on the flick is set to begin sometime next year though Scorsese is still filming the 3D family mystery Hugo Cabret as well as developing biopics of Sinatra and Theodore Roosevelt.
News of the director and actors returning to a genre they’ve helped define is exciting as many had thought they were out of these sort of films but thankfully the mob has pulled them back in.
Get the book I Heard You Paint Houses from Amazon.
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