Tidligere i år delte vi nyheten ^[1] om at Martin Scorsese ^[2] hadde holdt en høytlesning fra manuset til The Irishman ^[3] for Paramount. Nå forteller regissøren – i en samtale med svenske Moviezine ^[4] – at den etterlengtede gangsterfilmen blir hans neste prosjekt etter Silence ^[5].

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 ^[6]) and hopefully we also get with Joe Pesci ^[7] and Al Pacino ^[8]. 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 ^[9]‘ 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 ^[10] 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 ^[11] tidligere i år.

^[12]