Pretty huge news. Martin Scorsese’s next big mob movie is going to be a Netflix exclusive.
[quote]
The movie was going to be backed by Paramount Pictures, but with its 12-year chairman Brad Grey heading out the door, Scorsese’s team put together another package. As someone close to the deal put it, “Scorsese’s movie is a risky deal, and Paramount is not in the position to take risks. This way, he can make the project he wants.”
We now live in a world where Netflix is in a better position than any major studio to make a Martin Scorsese-Robert DeNiro gangster movie. Netflix would not comment on the deal.[/quote]
The script is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt. The story centers on Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, who may have killed Jimmy Hoffa.
I hope this doesn’t turn out to be gangsters in the uncanny valley. De-aging mid-70s icons by 30 years is a massive risk.
During a recent appearance on A24’s “A Bigger Canvas” podcast, Scorsese admitted to “The Souvenir” director Joanna Hogg that the VFX required to de-age the actors continues to worry him. De Niro’s present day appearance and his de-aged look will be mixed up throughout the movie (it sounds like Zaillian’s script is not told chronologically and mixes scenes of an older Sheeran reflecting on his younger self), which means viewers will be given numerous opportunities to compare De Niro’s two faces throughout the runtime. For this reason, Scorsese is adamant that every inch of the de-aged faces look realistic.
“Why I’m concerned, we’re all concerned is that we’re so used to watching them as the older faces,” Scorsese said. “When we put them all together, it cuts back and forth….Now, it’s real. Now, I’m seeing it. Now, certain shots need more work on the eyes, need more work on why these exactly the same eyes from the plate shot, but the wrinkles and things have changed. Does it change the eyes at all? If that’s the case, what was in the eyes that I liked? Was it intensity? Was it gravitas? Was it threat?”
I missed it, but people I talked to were impressed. Was he de-aged for most of the movie? I think the tricky thing here is that they’ll be making De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci look younger, while frequently jumping back and forth from the 40s and 50s back to the 70s, which could be jarring.
It’s insane to me that Scorsese’s making a nearly $150 million feature! Even Tarantino’s passed the $100 million mark for his latest work.
I would say that he looked pretty damned good in Captain Marvel, but there’s apparently a range of quality. Take a look at how uncanny-valley Will Smith looks in this trailer.
NYFF festival director Kent Jones, who previously worked for Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, heaped praise on the new film in a glowing statement: “‘The Irishman’ is so many things: rich, funny, troubling, entertaining and, like all great movies, absolutely singular,” he said. “It’s the work of masters, made with a command of the art of cinema that I’ve seen very rarely in my lifetime, and it plays out at a level of subtlety and human intimacy that truly stunned me. All I can say is that the minute it was over my immediate reaction was that I wanted to watch it all over again.”
Less than that, I bet. You can already do it fairly poorly with AI-driven deepfakes. In 10 years it’ll look real. Just get generic actors to do the motion then slap faces on the bodies.
You’d still need the permission of the estate (if dead) or the actor (if alive). And if it becomes commonplace, you can be sure that people will ask for that fee. Crispin Glover, besides being a general weirdo, wound up being the pioneer of this.
