Rumor: Al Pacino, Joe Pesci to Join Robert De Niro in New Martin Scorsese Film

Casting News, News, Rumors

Deadline is reporting that Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are circling The Irishman, a mob drama that Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro had previously been attached to. The film would be based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses, which chronicles the life and times of mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran. In the book, Sheeran claims to have killed Jimmy Hoffa among many others. The project is being developed at Paramount by De Niro’s Tribeca Productions. Steve Zallian wrote the script.

De Niro has previously spoken about his and Scorsese’s plan to film The Irishman alongside another Fellini-inspired companion movie.

“We have a more ambitious idea, hopefully, to make it a two-part type of film or two films … It’s an idea that came about from 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.”

Scorsese is currently directing the 3D family film Hugh Cabret starring Chloe Moretz and Jude Law and has yet to announce his next project. Besides The Irishman, another contender is Silence, a film about 17th Century missionaries who face danger in Japan and would star Benicio Del Toro, Daniel Day-Lewis and Gabriel Garcia Bernal.

While the idea of a new mob movie from Scorsese staring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci may sound like an amazing idea, it’s far from a done deal. Even if the movie were weeks away from filming, though, this news may not necessarily be a good idea. One has only to look at the recent films from Pacino and De Niro to worry that the actors’ best may be behind them. The only thing more depressing than the idea of this project falling apart is the idea of this project being made and coming out total, utter crap.

What do you think? Is the idea of a new film from this group of Goodfellas worth rolling the dice on a possible bad movie?

Robert Saucedo is an avid movie watcher with seriously poor sleeping habits. The Mikey from Life cereal of film fans, Robert will watch just about anything — good, bad or ugly. He has written about film for newspapers, radio and online for the last 10 years. This has taken a toll on his sanity — of that you can be sure. Follow him on Twitter at @robsaucedo2500.