Martin Scorsese is putting the old gang back together — and swearing in a new member — for a mob movie green-lighted through big-bucks deals struck at the Cannes Film Festival, according to reports Sunday.
“The Irishman,” which has been stuck in development hell for years, is set to star Scorsese stable-mates Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, who both played key roles in the director’s classic gangster flicks, “GoodFellas” and “Casino.”
Reports said it would also reunite Scorsese with Harvey Keitel, who last worked with Scorsese on 1988’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” and co-starred in the director’s 1976 legendary “Taxi Driver.”
The instant Oscar-bait film would also mark the first collaboration between Scorsese and legendary “Godfather” star Al Pacino.
The screenplay for the 1970s-era biopic is based on the 2004 book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” which details the deathbed confessions of Frank Sheeran, a Philadelphia-area hit man who claimed to have murdered Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa in 1975.
Digital technology would let the actors — all in their 70s — age backward, according to Variety.
The Mexican production company Fabrica de Cine has offered $100 million to bankroll “The Irishman,” with domestic distribution to be handled by Paramount, which developed the project.
“This is a cinematic event that is likely never going to be repeated,” a Fabrica exec told Deadline Hollywood.
“It’s Scorsese back with De Niro. It’s Scorsese with Pacino for the first time. We strongly believe in the filmmakers’ ability.”
Late Saturday, STX Entertainment won a heated bidding war by offering around $50 million for overseas distribution rights, according to Deadline Hollywood, which called it “by far the biggest deal of this Cannes.”
De Niro, Keitel and Scorsese first worked together on the director’s first major film, “Mean Streets,” in 1973.