Scorsese's Netflix Gangster Film Wont Be Goodfellas

We all know Martin Scorsese's next project is going to be a hit. Being the academy award winning director behind Goodfellas, The Departed, Casino, The Aviator (my favorite one of all) and Wolf Of Wall Street (among many others), you would think his next film wouldn't be going straight to Netflix (which I thought was the place for modern low budget indie, TV/Straight to DVD movies to die) but they acquired the $100-million gangster movie earlier this year, and IndieWire reports that sources say it will begin production in August.

With Scorsese and Robert De Niro have a long history (with eight previous collaborations) it's no surprise that De Niro will be playing Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran. Frank Sheeran was a mob hitman who was allegedly involved in union leader and author Jimmy Hoffa's death. the film was adapted from I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, which is about Sheeran's hitman life, the 25 people he killed including the claims of him murdering Jimmy Hoffa. “I Heard You Paint Houses” were the first words Hoffa said to Sheeran.  Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Bobby Cannavale, and Harvey Keitel will be starring alongside De Niro, reports IndieWire

‘The Irishman’ Will Be Very Different from ‘Goodfellas,’ Explains Martin Scorsese
who says this will be a stylish period thriller about love, betrayal, violence and the Mafia (which still sounds like Goodfellas and Casino). Scorsese is aware of the similarities between his classic gangster movie and his upcoming Mafia hitman film but he explained how the two films are completely different. In an interview with U.K. newspaper The Independent, Scorsese chatted about The Irishman, describing it as a story about “love, betrayal, remorse and the sadness and tragedy, ultimately, of a life led that way,” and what makes a person “become a professional killer.”

When asked how that film is different from Goodfellas, which has similar themes (Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill go through a similar journey), Scorsese insisted that the two films are very diffrent. “I think this is different, I think it is. I admit that there are – you know, Goodfellas and Casino have a certain style that I created for them – it’s on the page in the script actually.  Putting Goodfellas together was almost like an afterthought, at times I was kind of rushing, I felt I’d already done it because I’d played it all out in terms of the camera moves and the editing and that sort of thing. The style of the picture, the cuts, the freeze-frames, all of this was planned way in advance, but here it’s a little different.

At points, the film will show De Niro digitally altered to look 30 years younger, as 
“The people are also older in The Irishman, it’s certainly more about looking back, a retrospective so to speak of a man’s life and the choices that he’s had to make.”
While The Irishman does feature Scorsese gangster hall of fame like De Niro, Keitel and Pesci, it will also be the first film that Scorsese and Al Pacino will work on together. The two of them have been trying to make a film together since the ’70s, and honestly, it’s about time.

Paramount was originally involved in the project, which De Niro told Scorsese about over a decade ago. But the film, which will cost around $125 million, was dropped by Paramount. STX Entertainment attempted to make a $50 million deal for international rights before it was picked up by Netflix. The Irishman will begin shooting this summer with a planned 2019 release date. Will smith has a film coming straight to Netflix too this December.. will this become the new norm? Theater films reserved for comic book movie and sci fi blockbusters and everything else is SVOD? Scorsese gangster films of the past inspired my digital feature "New York Shorties". Im hoping The Irishman will be another classic to add to the list.