Tidligere i år delte vi nyheten om at Martin Scorsese hadde holdt en høytlesning fra manuset til The Irishman for Paramount. Nå forteller regissøren – i en samtale med svenske Moviezine – at den etterlengtede gangsterfilmen blir hans neste prosjekt etter Silence.

First, I’ll make ‘Silence.’ It’s a project I’ve wanted to do for many years, but it’s only now I’ve gotten together the budget. The Irishman comes after Silence.

Videre avslører regissøren: «It is a perfect role for Bobby (Robert De Niro) and hopefully we also get with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. But that’s a minor film, almost a chamber play». Hva som er Scorseses definisjon av et kammerspill gjenstår å se, men historien om mafiosoen Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran fremstår ikke akkurat som et lite Bergman-prosjekt når man ser på Google Books‘ synopsis av Charles Brandts roman I Heard You Paint Houses, som The Irishman vil være basert på.

Frank Sheeran lived a long, violent, passionate life. As a boy he took on older kids in bar fights so his dad could win free beer. During World War II he was a highly decorated infantryman with 411 days of active combat duty and a willingness to follow orders.

He became a hustler and hit man, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino and eventually becoming one of only two non-Italians on the FBI’s famous La Cosa Nostra list. He was also a truck driver who was made head of the Teamsters local in Wilmington, Delaware, by his good friend Jimmy Hoffa. When Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, Sheeran became a leading suspect, and every serious study of the Hoffa disappearance alleges that Sheeran was there.

Interessant? Ifølge filmbloggen The Playlist bør man ta Scorseses uttalelser med en klype salt, ettersom prosjektet har blitt utsatt en rekke ganger tidligere. En ting er i alle fall sikkert: det ser ikke ut til at Scorsese vender tilbake til Jo Nesbøs The Snowman, som han hoppet av tidligere i år.