The trailer for Martin Scorsese's hotly-anticipated Netflix drama The Irishman has arrived, and you might be surprised how young its stars Robert De Niro, 75 and Al Pacino, 79 look in some of the scenes.
The actors appear at various ages in the story, which spans decades of the friendship between Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran (De Niro), a labour union leader and alleged hitman for the Bufalino crime family, and union activist Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). Both actors appear at different ages over the years, which is accomplished largely with digital de-aging FX handled by Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic.
The cast list reads like the guest list for a Scorsese mobster revival, with mainstays like Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Ray Romano all teaming up with the director once again. Some of the supporting cast will also be appearing with some digital trickery.
Scorsese's keeping it in the family, mob-style, with his crew too. The movie's moody images were shot by The Wolf of Wall Street and Silence cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and the film is edited by longtime collaborator, the three-time Oscar winning Thelma Schoonmaker.
For De Niro, this will be his ninth film with Scorsese, and the actor commented: "I'm excited to see it and to share it after all this time working on it."
The film was adapted from Charles Brandt's 2003 book I Heard You Paint Houses, detailing Sheeran's life and the hits that defined his mob career, including connections to the infamous Bufalino family and his reported links to the disappearance of Hoffa. Sheeran's life-long friend and former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters mysteriously vanished in July 1975 at the age of 62.
The Irishman took around 12 years to finally get off the ground. The film was initially announced by Paramount back in 2008, and it's been through its fair share of development trauma before finally making it to Netflix this year.
The film will premiere as the opening film of this year’s New York Film Festival on September 27 ahead of its theatre and streaming release later in the year.
