A mobster's tale (DH)

By Nancy Tartaglione

In a dream scenario for Mob-story fans, Deadline yesterday reported that Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are now circling "The Irishman," the drama that Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro have been working on based on the book "I Heard You Paint Houses" which chronicles the tale of hitman Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran.

Steve Zaillian wrote the script. The film is being developed at Paramount by De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's Tribeca Productions.

Per Deadline, "The Irishman" is one of a couple projects that Scorsese is considering next.

De Niro and Pacino worked together in both Michael Mann's "Heat" and the more recent "Righteous Kill." They of course also starred as father and son, although had no screen time together, in "The Godfather Part II." Pesci and De Niro have appeared together in Scorsese's "Goodfellas," "Casino" and "Raging Bull."

Back in April, De Niro spoke to MTV about the project saying, "It's a very simple, terrific story about [mobster Frank Sheeran], who supposedly killed [Jimmy] Hoffa and Joe Gallo and so on."

"Steve Zaillian wrote the first script, which is terrific," De Niro told MTV. "The other part, Eric [Roth] is supposed to do it. And we're hoping to move these things together."

Continuing, he explained his and Scorsese's vision for the film at the time:

"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."