Robert DeNiro Says Netflix Plans A Theatrical Run For ‘The Irishman’ As Scorsese Applauds The Service For Taking Risks

The fall film season has seen streaming service Netflix break its own rules and begin a different release strategy for certain films, giving these projects exclusive theatrical runs before they land on the service to be watched at home. Many people are thanking the Alfonso Cuaron film, “Roma,” for paving the way for this new change. And those same people were hoping that Netflix would continue its new strategy for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming crime film “The Irishman.” Now, according to the film’s star, it appears the streaming service might just do that.

Speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival, actor Robert DeNiro opened up about his new film, the long-in-production “The Irishman,” and what the future holds for its release. “We’ve talked about it with Netflix. They are going to do a presentation of our film the way it should be, in a theater, in certain venues, the best theatrical venues there can be,” De Niro said (via THR).

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Much like the release of “Roma,” it sounds like Netflix is still finalizing its plans for “The Irishman” and will probably wait until closer to its release to announce. And by the description that DeNiro gives, it would seem that Netflix is going to reserve some of those massive theaters, with state of the art sound and picture, as the studio did for “Roma.”

“How they resolve it is, in the beginning, they will show it on the big screen — we’re talking about big venues where it would play, where it should play — and what happens after that, I’m not sure,” he said.

Well, presumably, what happens after a theatrical run is that “The Irishman” will live on Netflix in perpetuity.

Now, what that statement doesn’t shed light on is the future of “The Irishman” which it comes to film festivals. It’s been speculated that Cannes would love to host the worldwide premiere for the film, but given the relationship between that fest and Netflix, there would have to be some serious discussions before that happens.

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But even with all this uncertainty, and with what appears to be an unknown theatrical run, Martin Scorsese is still pleased to be working with Netflix. Primarily, he’s happy because the streaming service took a chance on a production that other studios passed on, given the age of the actors and the immense amount of CGI required to de-age the actors, leading to a budget that is reportedly between $125 million and $150 million.

Scorsese said, while also attending Marrakech (via Variety), “People such as Netflix are taking risks. ‘The Irishman’ is a risky film. No one else wanted to fund the pic for five to seven years. And of course, we’re all getting older. Netflix took the risk.”

Hopefully, we’ll find out more about “The Irishman” in the coming weeks, as the film is on our recent list of the most-anticipated films of 2019.