Martin Scorsese is back. Which in itself is a big deal – but factor in that he’s reuniting with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, working with Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel, re-entering the world of mob stories, and attempting some of the most extensive de-ageing in cinema history, and The Irishman is a hugely, hugely exciting prospect. The iconic filmmaker has been tinkering away for years on his latest crime epic for Netflix, and the first proper trailer has finally arrived.
This one stars De Niro as Frank Sheeran, a hitman who recalls his life working for the mob, which interweaves through the history of American organised crime. Al Pacino is Jimmy Hoffa, the union boss who famously disappeared, with Pesci playing Russel Bufalino. Compared to the livelier stylistics of GoodFellas and visual razzmatazz of Casino, this looks like a more muted and murky trek into the criminal underworld, but this trailer alone shows the incredible scope, sweeping camera moves, and energetic editing that has become Scorsese’s signature. All that, and we get a glimpse at the de-aged De Niro – with The Irishman set across Sheeran’s long life, significant portions of the film are expected to depict much younger incarnations of the film’s super-star cast.
There’s no official release date for The Irishman yet, but the film will come to Netflix at some point in the autumn. It will also receive a big screen release – though it remains to be seen how extensively Netflix put this one in cinemas. In a year that’s already given us a brand new Tarantino movie, we now have a very real, very tangible Scorsese epic to be incredibly excited about.