Possibly the only thing that could give me any hope about the future of Robert De Niro’s acting career would be seeing him re-team with Martin Scorsese…which is exactly what is now slated to happen. Paramount is set to produce Steve Zallian’s adaptation of the book I Heard You Paint Houses, which chronicles the late life of Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran, the man said by many to be responsible for the death of Jimmy Hoffa.
Robert De Niro will be playing Sheeran, and Scorsese is now attached to direct.
The book, written by Charles Brandt, is the result of Brandt’s friendship with Sheernan prior to the latter’s death. Sheernan confessed many murders to Brandt, including Hoffa, who he claims to have dismembered.
When I first got wind of this story and the involvement of Hoffa, I had a moment’s flash of hope that the subject was an adaptation of James Ellroy’s The Cold Six Thousand, which would have me me plotz. As disatisfied as I am with his current career, I could see De Niro just killing as Ward Littell. This will do just fine, though. Between this and his new work with Michael Mann (on Frankie Machine) we could see an all-new return to the great old De Niro.