Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese are set to reunite for the first time since 1995’s Casino with The Irishman, a biopic of mob hitman Frank Sheeran, and it seems the film will be employing the same kind of digital de-aging we’ve seen recently in Captain America: Civil War and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to allow De Niro to portray the gangster during the various stages of his life.
“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,” producer Gaston Pavlovich tells CinemaBlend. “We’ve seen some tests and it looks extraordinary. We were able to film Bob and just do a scene. 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: Part II days, that’s pretty much how you’re going to see him again.”
The Irishman will see De Niro joined once again on screen by Al Pacino, while Scorsese is also hoping to lure Joe Pesci out of retirement for a role in the film. It is slated to arrive some time in 2018.
Originally published December 21, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
