Deadline is
reporting that Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are circling The Irishman,
a film that Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have been working on for
quite a while. It’s based on the real-life mob hitman Frank “the
Irishman” Sheeran, as portrayed in Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses.
Brandt conducted nearly five years of interviews with the killer and
uncovered a vast amount of info from unsolved mysteries… Sheeran being
the man who claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa. The title of the book
comes from the
first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to the Irishman,
and of course
“paint houses” isn’t as innocent as it sounds- it
means painting with someone’s blood.
Pacino, Pesci, and De Niro in a
Scorsese film. Let that sink in a bit, and then wish that it was a
decade or two ago… for the actors, at least. Pacino and De Niro of
course first teamed up in Michael Mann’s Heat, a fantastic film that would have
been better without a needlessly contrived ending, and went on to do a
couple of much more crappy films together. For the record, this will be
Pacino’s first time working with Scorsese (!), and De Niro’s first time
working with his old pal since Casino.
Scorsese is currently working on Hugo
Cabret
and Deadline is quick to point out that there are a few other projects
he’s considering for his next. One of the most interesting ones is Silence,
that would star Benicio Del Toro, Daniel Day Lewis and Gabriel Garcia
Bernal as Jesuits trying to preach Christianity in 17th Century Japan.
But
with all those famous Italians on one bill, it’ll be hard to pass up The Irishman.
More as we hear it!