Even though “The Irishman” aka “I Heard You Paint Houses” is near the bottom of Martin Scorsese’s pecking order for his upcoming slate of films we, along with everyone else, are anxiously awaiting the director’s long in the works re-teaming with Robert De Niro. In an interview with MTV, De Niro revealed plans for the film that could place it in whole new context other than the standard gangster pic that, until now, its largely been thought to be.
The project got its start as biopic of Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran, the notorious mob hitman who apparently carried out more than 25 hits. However, it appears the project is taking a new a fascinating direction. As Deniro reveals, the project is now being ambitiously conceived as a two-part film: “We have a more ambitious idea, hopefully, to make it a two-part type of film or two films,” he said. “It’s an idea that came about from [‘Benjamin Button‘ screenwriter] Eric Roth to combine these movies using the footage from ‘Paint Houses’ to do another kind of a [film that is] reminiscent of a kind of ‘8 1/2,’ ‘La Dolce Vita,’ [a] certain kind of biographical, semi-biographical type of Hollywood movie — a director and the actor — based on things Marty and I have experienced and kind of overlapping them.”
Um, whoa. It doesn’t need to be said that Scorsese is tremendously influenced by Fellini and Italian cinema in general, but the idea of teaming up with De Niro to create a semi-autobiographical tale about themselves, their life and Hollywood sounds extraordinary and fascinating. As De Niro describes it, the first film will be the straight ahead gangster pic while the second while utilize footage from the first to tell a broader (and probably looser) story about dreams and memories (like “8 1/2”) tying into the myth that already surrounds the actor and director.
De Niro goes on to say, “Steve Zaillian wrote the first script, which is terrific. The other part, Eric [Roth] is supposed to do it. And we’re hoping to move these things together.” This would make sense. Zaillian was attached to the picture since its earliest days, and since the two films don’t seem to be tied together plotwise, his involvement on the spiritual sequel doesn’t seem to be required.
As you might recall Roth wrote De Niro’s underrated and underappreciated “The Good Shepherd,” as well two the bigger mainstream films to deal with memory/history “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” and “Forrest Gump,” But we hope Roth keeps his sentimentalist tendencies at bay this time around.
As exciting as all this is, let’s just remember its still at least a year and a half, if not two years away at the earliest. Scorsese starts production on “Hugo Cabret” this summer, after which he is supposed to follow it up with his other long gestating project, “Silence.” Of course, that’s not to mention the small handful of documentaries he has in various stage of development or anything else that might come his way and change up the entire order of things.
Nevertheless, it sounds utterly fascinating and we hope it finds its way into production soon.