Image supplied by Netflix
The BFI has announced that Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated The Irishman will get its international premiere at this year’s BFI London Film Festival in October. The crime drama will be the festival’s closing film, so says an official release.
The 63rd BFI London Film Festival will play host to one of the true giants of cinema, Martin Scorsese, along with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. The film will premiere on Sunday 13th October, with Martin Scorsese and cast expected to attend. The closing gala will follow the film’s world premiere at the end of September at the New York Fim Festival.
Reuniting Scorsese with his Gangs of New York screenwriter Steve Zaillian, who adapts from Charles Brandt’s novel I Heard You Paint Houses, The Irishman is a grand scale epic examining the influence of organised crime in post-war America. Told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th Century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary Union President Jimmy Hoffa and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organised crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
Related: The Irishman – the first proper trailer
Martin Scorsese commented: “I’m extremely honored to be having the International Premiere of THE IRISHMAN at the closing night of the BFI London Film Festival. This picture was many years in the making. It’s a project that Robert De Niro and I started talking about a long time ago, and we wanted to make it the way it needed to be made. It’s also a picture that all of us could only have made at this point in our lives. We’re all very excited to be bringing The Irishman to London.”
Watch the trailer at the end of the link above.
