With 151
million subscribers around the world, Netflix is under constant pressure to
provide unique and interesting content. Hardly a week goes by without news of
another huge industry deal as the giant streaming platform continues to hoover
up the best and brightest that Hollywood has to offer.
And, for
the most part it pays off. Case in point being Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman which has generated so much
buzz that it looks set to break the current Netflix viewing record held by Bird
Box.
Based on
the book I Heard You Paint Houses by
Charles Brandt, the film will have its world premiere at the New York Film
Festival on September 27th.
This, of course, allows it to qualify for awards season before it
streams on Netflix. So expect quite a few Oscar nominations for this
masterpiece.
Starring
Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino, this is, surprisingly, the first time
the three Academy Award winners will have starred together in a movie. It is however, the ninth collaboration
between De Niro and Scorsese. Though it has also been confirmed that the duo will team up again for Killers Of The Flower Moon.
So what can
we expect from The Irishman? It is a biographical crime drama set in post-war America, as told
through the eyes of Frank Sheeran who is played by De Niro. Sheeran was born in
Pennsylvania and enlisted in the US Army to serve in WW2. It was during this
period of his life that he spent time on active duty in Italy.
It was
also, according to later interviews with Charles Brandt, there that he
developed his callousness to taking human life. On his return to the US,
Sheeran became a close associate of mob bosses Angelo Bruno and Russell
Bufalino, who is played by Joe Pesci. That led to his relationship with the
controversial union leader Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino, who Sheeran later
claimed to have assassinated.
The Irishman focuses on Sheeran, now an old man, as he
reflects on this period of his life and is a movie that has been in the works
since 2014. Though Scorsese has said that he started thinking about making this
film as earlier as 2008.
With a
budget of $200m it is also one of the most expensive movies that Martin
Scorsese has ever made. In true Scorsese style, the film chronicles organised
crime in America through the decades as well as one of the greatest mysteries
of recent history – the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.
