NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) — Martin Scorsese’s newest mafia film “The Irishman” is set to premiere as the opening night film at the 57th New York Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center announced Monday.
The film is one Scorsese’s most highly aniticipated film and will premiere on September 27.
“The Irishman” is Scorsese’s $125 million Netflix film about the reflections of a former Jimmy Hoffa associate and hit man.
Its cast includesg Robert De Niro as Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa and Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino.
“It’s in the milieu of the pictures we’ve done together and are known for, in a sense, but I hope from a different vantage point,” Scorsese said earlier this year at a Tribeca Film Festival event. “Years have gone by and we see things in a special way, I hope.”
New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones, a frequent collaborator with Scorsese, said in a statement that “The Irishman” is “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.”
In an interview with The Associated Press, Scorsese said Netflix was the only one that was willing to bankroll the ambitious film, based on Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses.”
“No one else did. No one else did,” said Scorsese, who also turned to Netflix for his Bob Dylan documentary “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.” ″We decided to make it with the understanding that it’ll maybe never be shown in theaters. They said, ‘You would have a time in theaters’ — a few weeks or whatever. I said fine. The idea was to make the movie, you see.”
On Monday Scorsese said he was grateful for the New York Film Festival selection and praised the festival as “critical to bringing awareness to cinema from around the world.”
The New York Film Festival runs September 27 through October 13.