Good news and somewhat disappointing news.

First, being the optimist that I am, let’s focus on the good. While doing press for Little Fockers, Robert DeNiro confirmed that not only would Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman be coming to fruition, but also likely begin filming next year, with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino in tow. During an interview with MTV (via ThePlaylist) he star was quoted as saying “We have a very good script that Steven Zaillian wrote, and that we’re definitely doing.” We reported that the director enthusiastically talked about the financing coming together with the plans to shoot next year, and the film’s star saying this briefly after its director feels like a real confirmation. So, there’s that to be excited about.

And now for the somewhat disappointing. During the same interview he sadly revealed that the Fellini-inspired second film that would “explore the director and star’s working relationship” is not likely to happen, even though Oscar-winner Eric Roth was said to be working on the script. “The other idea is more ambitious, to do one with Eric doing a flashback/flashforward kind of thing and to do two movies in one and then separate them as movies. I don’t know if that will happen”.

Ultimately, my previously-mentioned positivity still has me extremely happy from reading this news. While I would have killed to see the second part, I’m happy enough to be getting something this promising; complaining about a failed companion piece just feels kind of ungrateful. So while the idea isn’t completely dead, I wouldn’t get my hopes up at seeing it come to fruition. As they say, win some, lose some. Watch the video interview with DeNiro below.

What do you think of this news? Are you disappointed we may not get a second part to The Irishman?