Given that Martin Scorsese is arguably the greatest filmmaker of his generation, and that Robert De Niro is arguably the greatest actor, the eight films that these two made together over the course of three decades emerged as some of cinema’s greatest ever. As collaborators, Scorsese and De Niro are the Lennon/McCartney of the film world, though recently Scorsese has found new love and success in Leonardo DiCaprio (c’mon, he was Jack in Titanic), whereas DeNiro has found himself associated with some very middling performances in some very mediocre films.
Well, perhaps that’s all about to change, given that De Niro recently announced that there are still plans for him to re-team with Scorsese for The Irishman, a project that has been rumored for a while now and will also see the pair back with Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino, making this another one of those old bastard reunions that cinema loves so very dearly right now.
The Irishman is based on a non-fiction book by Charles Brandt titled I Heard You Paint Houses, and follows Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a former Mafia hitman who carried out 25 hits over the course of his long career (by his own admission, at least). De Niro would play Sheeran, and the other oldies would presumably play people who get in his way and will either be whacked or beaten to a pulp as a result.
Though De Niro has mentioned that he and Scorsese are working on the project currently, he did imply that it was being done loosely so, meaning that this thing could still be a few years off. Hopefully Scorsese will make it his next film, purely because I want Robert De Niro to land a role which reminds me of how great he used to be. ‘Cause Little Fockers was focking embarassing, wasn’t it?
Source: The Film Stage
