It’s official: Joe Pesci joins the cast of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It's a project which not many of us thought would ever be realized, but Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN seems as though it's actually going to happen, and even more amazingly, Scorsese's dream cast is officially coming together. Based upon Charles Brandt’s "I Heard You Paint Houses," THE IRISHMAN will chronicle the career of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, a mob hitman who was supposedly involved in the death of Jimmy Hoffa. The Martin Scorsese film is set to star Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran, and even though Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, and Joe Pesci have been bought up in relation to the film, nothing was official, until now.

Deadline reports that after Joe Pesci apparently turned down the project multiple times, some say close to fifty, a deal was finally reached and Pesci will now star alongside Robert De Niro as Russell Bufalino, a Mafia boss out of PA who has been long suspected of having a hand in the disappearance of Hoffa. Harvey Keitel has also officially signed on and Al Pacino's deal is currently being finalized. Bobby Cannavale is also set to appear in THE IRISHMAN, which is set to begin shooting next month in and around New York. Netflix, who picked up the film earlier this year, is apparently looking to give THE IRISHMAN a 2019 release day-and-date with a limited Oscar-qualifying run.

As the story of Frank Sheeran's life spans many decades and Martin Scorsese doesn't want to resort to unconvincing make-up or hiring a younger actor, it's going to fall to Industrial Light & Magic to make Robert De Niro look as though he's thirty years old. We've certainly come a long way with age-defying digital makeup over the past few years, but ILM will definitely have their work cut out for them. No matter how good THE IRISHMAN winds up being, if we don't buy Robert De Niro with several decades shaved off his face, we may have a hard time with the rest of the movie. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for this one, but with the amount of talent involved, holy shit, it's certainly hard to keep my excitement in check.