For years, Martin Scorsese has been weighing a return to smaller filmmaking. Though his recent foray into big, profitable blockbusters has done wonders for his profile and stature amongst everyday fans, the diehards know him as an expert on tough guy crime epics. And while we like it when a filmmaker leaves his sandbox, we can’t deny that Scorsese’s newest project, a possible return to crime pictures called “The Irishman,” just became an incredibly exciting project.
Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Joe Pesci and Al Pacino are circling roles in “The Irishman,” a script Scorsese and Robert De Niro have been developing from the book “I Heard You Paint Houses.” The true story centers on Frank Sheeran, a WWII veteran who led a colorful life as a high ranking officer in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters while also dabbling in organized crime as a highly-sought-after hitman. He reportedly also had ties to the deaths of President Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa.
Paramount has the rights to the project, and considering their success with Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” the guess is they’ll be eager to shoot the Steve Zaillian script ASAP. Scorsese’s not committed to any project after he completes the currently-shooting “Hugo Cabret,” but the Deadline piece mentions his long-dormant “Silence” as a contender, though with the legal troubles surrounding that project, and the full deck of a cast he’s got onboard “The Irishman,” it’s hard to see him saying no to shooting this, possibly for 2011 or 2012. This will be the first time Pacino’s worked with Scorsese, but it will be an even bigger thrill to see De Niro opposite Pesci for the first time since “Casino,” though Pesci did have possibly the best scene in the De Niro-helmed “The Good Shepherd.”
While there’s no mention of this, when De Niro and Scorsese first discussed the project, they envisioned two separate films, one of them being a non-fiction account of making the movie in the vein of “8 1/2.” The second film, supposedly scripted by Eric Roth, was to involve a relationship between an actor and a director, with Scorsese and De Niro acting alongside each other. Not sure if that’s still the plan, but De Niro definitely has more than a working relationship with Roth, with the heavily-in-demand writer having penned “The Good Shepherd.” Then again, De Niro wanted to do a couple of those movies too – maybe he’s just trying to shoot as many films in a row that he can.
This project, for the record, is unrelated to “The Irishman,” an undistributed crime film about 1970’s Cleveland hitman Danny Greene starring Ray Stevenson, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer and Vinnie Jones. We’re curious to see who budges, as Scorsese had been previously developing the story under the book’s title, while the other film, from “Punisher” director Jonathan Hensleigh, is based on the Rick Porello book “To Kill The Irishman.” Though if they combined both casts, and maybe gave Harvey Keitel a call, we’d have to call it the greatest movie ever on principle.