Although Paramount has yet to confirm a date for Martin Scorsese‘s priest drama Silence — the director recently chimed in that it’ll be done by October — it looks like we already have a release window for his next film. For the past many years, the director has been wrangling together collaborators old and new — Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Bobby Cannavale, as it stands now — for The Irishman, a crime drama about Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a mob hitman whose illustrious career is today best-known for a supposed involvement in the death of Jimmy Hoffa.
We got word at Cannes this year that Paramount had begun selling international rights to the $100 million production, based on Charles Brandt‘s book I Heard You Paint Houses, and now another update brings news of when we may see it. According to Deadline, a shoot is being planned next year for a release in late 2018. This comes with the news that Media Asia has picked up distribution rights for China, while STX Entertainment previously plopped down around $50 million for international rights elsewhere. This marks a major achievement for Scorsese, who was previously banned in China due to contention surrounding his Dalai Lama biopic Kundun.
The question still remains if Chinese censors will approve the release of the Steve Zaillian-scripted The Irishman, but those involved are confident. “We read the script, which, by the way, is brilliant,” Media Asia’s Fred Tsui tells THR. “Like other Scorsese films, the violence is not as excessive as other Hollywood action film[s] that grace the screens in China.” To add another dose of excitement, he adds, “The film has every indication of becoming a magnum opus that will go down in film history as one of the best gangster flicks ever made.”
As we await more details, perhaps Scorsese can extend a call to Harvey Keitel, who said this month he has “not been asked” to take part.