Over the past few years we've seen several prominent examples of digital makeup being used to de-age a character, and it looks like we'll definitely be seeing more of this technique in the future. Martin Scorsese's much-anticipated reunion with Robert De Niro for THE IRISHMAN has been in the works for quite a while, but with production aiming to kick off sometime next year, we may finally get to see Scorsese's take on real-life mob hitman Frank "The Irishman Sheeran.
Over his long career in organized crime, Sheeran murdered many people and even claimed to have been behind the disappearance of union leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975. Robert De Niro is set to play Sheeran in THE IRISHMAN, but as the story will span many decades, how can the 73 year-old De Niro play the character at various points in his life without resorting to unconvincing make-up or hiring a younger actor? According to THE IRISHMAN producer Gaston Pavlovich when he spoke with CinemaBlend, Scorsese will be giving Robert De Niro a series of digital face-lifts.
Well it's an extraordinary technology that we've been looking at. You don't use prosthetics, make-up, they have acting and the technology is able to have them go through different time ages without the prosthetics. So we've seen some tests and it looks extraordinary. We were able to film Bob and just do a scene, and we saw it come down to when he was like 20, 40, 60, so we're looking forward to that, from that point of view, for The Irishman … Imagine seeing what De Niro looked like in The Godfather 2 days, that's pretty much how you're going to see him again.
Robert De Niro revealed that Martin Scorsese was thinking about going down this route over a year ago on Empire's podcast and that both Al Pacino and Joe Pesci (who still hasn't committed to the film) would also get the opportunity to act as their younger selves. The technology to successfully pull off this feat has certainly come a long way over the years, the stellar work done on Michael Douglas in ANT-MAN and Robert Downey Jr. in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR come to mind, but there's something about it which makes me a little apprehensive. A Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro reunion, with both Al Pacino and hopefully Joe Pesci along for the ride, has been on our wish-lists for years, and it'd be a shame if the entire project was overshadowed by distracting CG representations of the beloved actors.
Martin Scorsese's upcoming SILENCE is another long-in-development project which will finally hit theaters in limited-release on December 23nd before opening wide on January 13, 2017.