Speaking of how radically the entertainment business is changing, anticipation has been building for the Martin Scorsese-Robert DeNiro-Al Pacino gangster flick The Irishman. The film will tell the story of Frank Sheeran, a hitman known as “The Irishman” who claims to finally have the answer to the endless question – who killed notorious Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa? (Hint: he’s the title character of this movie.) The Irishman will re-team Scorsese with DeNiro, who have been making movies together for nearly 50 years. DeNiro even played an Irish hood, Henry Hill, in Scorsese’s classic Goodfellas. But what big-time movie studio is releasing this A-list flick? In a bid to reach the heights of the movie biz, Netflix has purchased the rights to the Scorsese flick. That does not mean the movie will merely be streamed. But business insiders do say this is the clearest sign yet that Netflix is looking to challenge traditional movie studios and the way they release films. Wherever you see it, The Irishman should be a return to form for Scorsese, whose Jesuits-in-Japan film Silence, with Liam Neeson, fell flat at the box office. ♦
Ray Liotta played Henry Hill. DeNiro played an Italian American gangster.
Actually, DeNiro played Jimmy Conway, an Irish associate of the Mafia. The character of Conway was based on Jimmy “the Gent” Burke, who organized the actual Lufthansa heist for the Lucchese family.
Wow, I wonder if I’m the only American never to have seen a Scorese film. I tend to stay away from gratuitous violence, if that fits.