Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ Is Finally Happening With Robert De Niro and Al Pacino
It was reported last week that foreign distribution rights were being shopped around Cannes for Martin Scorsese’s long-developing mob drama The Irishman — a project that’s been gestating for so long that we started to think it might not ever happen. But STX Entertainment has snatched up the rights to distribute the film overseas, which means that The Irishman is finally happening after all.
THR reports that STX picked up the foreign distribution rights for The Irishman, with Paramount handling the film over here in the U.S. For the unfamiliar, the project reunites Scorsese with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, marking their third collaboration with each other (and De Niro and Scorsese’s fifth). It will also be the first time Al Pacino has starred in a Scorsese film, if you can believe it.
The Irishman was adapted by Steve Zaillian (Gangs of New York) from Charles Brandt’s best-selling book I Heard You Paint Houses, which collects five years’ worth of interviews with former mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran. On his deathbed, Sheeran detailed over 25 hits he made while working for the Bufalino crime family, and claimed to know what really happened to infamous teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa — whose body has never been found. The title I Heard You Paint Houses comes from something Hoffa said to Sheeran when they first met, referring to his particular line of work.
De Niro, Pacino and Pesci have been attached to the project for several years, but STX’s foreign distribution deal indicates that we’ll finally see The Irishman sooner rather than later.
Scorsese’s next film, Silence, is reportedly eyeing a November release date.