The Irishman: Martin Scorsese’s crime movie set for 2018 debut after securing China distribution.
The Irishman unites Scorsese with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.
We reported back in May that Martin Scorsese‘s planned crime movie The Irishman had bagged itself a $50 million distribution deal over in Cannes, but since then its all gone a bit quiet. Well, Scorsese is putting the finishing touches to his next film Silence, which we hear will hit cinemas later this year, but there is some good news as The Irishman looks set for 2018, so we won’t have too long to wait for the next great Scorsese gangster film.
The Irishman is set to star Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and is was even rumoured to be bringing Joe Pesci out of retirement (though it sadly seems that now that won’t happen). It is based on the novel I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, which was first published in 2010. Here’s the plot courtesy of Amazon.
‘I heard you paint houses’ are the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank ‘the Irishman’ Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the wall and floors. In the course of nearly five years of recorded interviews Frank Sheeran confessed to Charles Brandt that he handled more than twenty-five hits for the Mob, and for his friend Hoffa.
Sheeran learned to kill in the US Army, where he saw an astonishing 411 days of active combat during World War 2. After returning home he became a hustler and a hit man, working for legenday crime boss Russell Bufalino. Eventually Sheeran would rise to a position of such prominence that he was named as one of only two non-Italians on a list of the twenty-six most wanted Mob figures.
When Bufalino ordered Sheeran to kill Hoffa, the Irishman did the deed, knowing that if he refused, he would have been killed himself.
Oscar-winner Steve Zaillian is adapting the screenplay and Deadline have revealed that the film has been picked up for distribution in China, a place where Scorsese’s movies had previously been banned.
We’ll bring you more news on The Irishman as soon as it comes our way.
