Although The Irishman, formally known as I Heard You Paint Houses is not a priority among Martin Scorsese’s upcoming projects, it continues to attract attention as the long awaited project which will reunite Robert De Niro with Scorsese . In a recent interview with MTV De Niro revealed that the pair have plans for The Irishman to be a two part film:
“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.”
Originally, The Irishman was to be based on a book called I Heard You Paint Houses, a biopic on Frank Sheeran (De Niro), the notorious mob hitman who apparently carried out more than 25 hits. But with De Niro’s remarks in mind it seems that The Irishman Pt 2. will take a more personal route, delving into the personal filming experiences of Scorsese and De Niro and using the style of the great Italian filmmaker, Federico Fellini (who directed both films that De Niro mentions, 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita.)
Perhaps this is why it has taken this long for The Irishman to get off the ground. If Scorsese wants to use material from the first part to influence and negate the second, then he will have to have a firm idea of what the second script will need to include. In mentioning who is writing the scripts, De Niro himself adds that the second needs to be in some stage of development before the first kicks off:
“Steve Zaillian wrote the first script, which is terrific. The other part, Eric [Roth] is supposed to do it. And we’re hoping to move these things together.”
In any case, The Irishman will likely be a straight forward gangster flick that probably won’t stray too far away from the book that it is based around.
Scorsese starts production on Hugo Cabret this summer, after which he will move onto another long awaited project called, Silence.
What do you think of ‘The Irishman’ being a two-part film?