Don’t Freak Out, But Martin Scorsese’s Shooting ‘The Irishman’ in August

I now invite you to take a break from staring out the window and wondering what the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie with Daniel Day-Lewis is going to be like, and rotate in your chair to stare out of a different window and wonder what the new Martin Scorsese movie with Robert De Niro is going to be like. It’s been just about a year since we learned that Scorsese’s new mob drama (featuring the all-star team of De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale) was for sure happening, and as if in commemoration of that anniversary, today brings the news that production will soon get up and running.

Indiewire has the exclusive that Marty’s going to begin principal photography on longtime mobter Frank Sheeran’s biopic come August. He’ll work on a budget of $100 million — that ain’t Silence money, that’s Wolf of Wall Street money — and reunite with his trusty cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto as well as his career-long editor Thelma Schoonmaker. This will mark Scorsese’s first production for Netflix, a surprising move away from usual distributor Paramount and a major get for the online video streaming platform. The Indiewire item cites an unnamed source as claiming The Irishman will get a release in 2019 with a minor theatrical run for Oscar consideration purposes, though Netflix refrained from confirming. When we’ll actually see this likely triumph is anyone’s guess.

Whenever The Irishman finally gets a release date, it’ll be one of that year’s most anticipated films on the calendar. Scorsese returning to organized crime with a stacked lineup of the usual collaborators, both in front of and behind the camera? That’s a surefire thing.