I Heard Scorsese Will Paint Houses Again

SCORSESE'S RETURN TO GOODFELLAS' TERRITORY

By Jerry Saravia

It has been 19 years since director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro have worked together. Their last project was the vastly underrated "Casino," a sprawling, hardcore, deeply unsettling and definitely entertaining Mafia movie - a sort of "GoodFellas Goes West" where Las Vegas becomes the playground of greed and excess for the wiseguys. Since then, Scorsese has not dealt with the Mafia per se, with the exception of "The Departed" which features an underworld element that has little to do with "GoodFellas" or "Casino." The news had arrived well over a year ago that Scorsese had his eye on "I Heard You Paint Houses," a 2004 book by author Charles Brandt that deals with real-life figure, Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran.

In the book, it is stated that Pennsylvanian-born Sheeran had served in World War II for 411 days, participating in the Dachau concentration camp massacre (interestingly, this event also signaled one of the more powerful scenes in Scorsese's "Shutter Island"). After leaving the service, he worked as a trucker and became a hitman for the Bufalino crime family, working for crime boss Russell Bufalino. Sheeran also claimed to have been a hitman for Jimmy Hoffa, involved in more than 25 murders (Sheeran also worked as a labor union official for Hoffa). Sheeran also claimed support for anti-Fidel Castro forces involved in the Bay of Pigs disaster, as well as claiming that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was a Mafia hit (Sheeran allegedly transported rifles to the alleged assassins). There is also the claim that Sheeran killed Jimmy Hoffa (this would contradict the late Richard Kuklinsi's claims that he had killed Hoffa, according to the book "The Iceman: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer.)" 

The planned adaptation of this book is called "The Irishman." So what are my thoughts on this? This is a great idea for a film and I certainly hope Scorsese makes it. It is not an average story of a Mafia contract killer or "GoodFellas" redux simply because a lot of history is attached to it, or historical footnotes as it were. Robert De Niro claimed earlier this year that he was going play Sheeran and Al Pacino would play Hoffa. My only quibble is Pacino's casting - this man is in his 70's, playing a 62-year-old man who was very animated and passionate about his Teamsters Union (check out the interrogations by the late Robert Kennedy for proof). Not that Pacino can't animate himself to extremes but he does a look little too old to play Hoffa (it might end up being better than Nicholson's cartoon Hoffa with a prosthetic nose in the film of the same name). And since the story is told from the point-of-view of an old man, De Niro can definitely do the latter but who is going to play the role when it comes to the depictions of WW II and the Hoffa Years? De Niro is a very talented actor, able to change his body language to suit any character, but he can't make himself look too young. There are also claims that Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci are cast, though no word on what roles they will play.

When "The Irishman" will commence filming is unclear. Scorsese recently said it wouldn't be till 2014, and it seems his long-gestating passion project "Silence" is finally becoming a reality. Either way, this is one fascinating story I look forward to from one of the greatest film directors of all time.