Robert De Niro & Al Pacino Open Up on Reuniting After All These Years for 'The Irishnman'

If star-studded was supposed to be described by just one film and one collaboration - it would be that of The Irishman. Every name attached to this ambitituos project is indeed so massive that the fact that this illustrious cast and crew is coming together for a film is a treat in itself.

Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and director Martin Scorcese - these guys have come together for a film and that in itself is such an attraction. However, the recent icing on the cake has been the immensely rave reviews that the film has received at the New Work film festival.

In a recent interview, the actors opened up on reuniting after all these years. “It’s Bob and Marty in a world they understand, have researched and know better than anybody else,” says Pacino. “I didn’t think it was going to get made,” admits Pacino. “At some point, I sort of thought, ‘Well, that was a good idea, but a lot of those come along and never happen.’”

“Pretty quickly I started to see the movie in my head,” Scorsese says. “The themes and the questions that have haunted and obsessed me throughout my life were all there. It gave Bob and me the opportunity to pick up the thread from our previous pictures and come together at a very different moment in our lives.”

“We needed to make an expensive picture,” says Scorsese. “The movie business is changing hour by hour — not necessarily for the better — and many of the places we would have gone to for funding in the past were no longer viable. Then we started talking to Netflix. We agreed on everything, most importantly that we all wanted to make the same movie. So we went forward.” 

“I wish we could have had 27 days,” jokes De Niro. Jane Rosenthal, his longtime producing partner, is more reserved in her appraisal. “You always wish for more, but we’ll still be in theaters and hopefully adding screens even when we debut on the platform,” she says. “At the end of the day, we just want audiences to see the film.”

Netflix is planning to push “The Irishman” for this year’s Oscar race, and believes the movie is a viable contender not just for best picture but also for Scorsese’s direction and for the performances of De Niro and Pacino. Even if it falls short of its awards ambitions, the movie has already served as a valuable calling card to the industry.

“After we announced the deal, I had so many filmmakers reach out to ask about coming to work with us,” says Scott Stuber, head of Netflix’s feature film division. “We recognize that this is a big conversion for them, but we want to support the greatest filmmakers.”