Clearly Netflix have reached a point in their existence where edgy new television shows are not enough to satisfy the millions of their customers around the globe. From exclusive titles including Beasts of No Nation and the David Ayer-Will Smith futuristic thriller Bright, the online streaming service are branching out their content to showcase the best in motion pictures.
Now they are taking their acquisitions and productions a step further, pouring in a reported $105m to bring Martin Scorsese's feature The Irishman onto their platform. Reuniting with some of his old friends and favorites, the movie will be casting on screen gangster legends Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.
Film To Portray Real Life Teamsters
The Irishman will tell the real-life story of Frank Sheeran, the leader of a group known as the Teamsters and the confessed killer of Jimmy Hoffa. It would be just a matter of weeks after Scorsese told a gathered audience at the British Film Institute in London that a movie should be experienced in a theater rather than at home on a couch, quickly backflipping to tie up a lucrative deal with the streaming service.
This agreement came in the wake of the director's close ally at Paramount Pictures in Brad Grey walking away from his position, leaving Scorsese to examine other options on the table. Although the title won't be a major action blockbuster to eat into the budget, they will be utilizing CGI imagery to make the cast appear from an age range of 30 to 50 to 70 for the biographical flick.
The fee Netflix paid for the rights vary according to the source, starting at $105m and escalating towards $120m. The money is standard practice for a venture of this scale, yet it is something of history in the making as the ensemble goes from the big screen to the web.
First Ever Scorsese-Pacino Project
Incredible to think that it took the best part of six decades before Al Pacino and Martin Scorsese would finally link up for a feature together. The director has been a regular with De Niro, having paired up on no less than 9 movies as a duo including the brilliant Casino and Goodfellas.
Pacino and De Niro were iconic in their separate starring roles for The Godfather Part II before finally eyeing each other off for the 1995 thriller Heat. If the talent alone is any guide, The Irishman will well be worth the viewing when it eventually airs sometime in 2019.
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