Scorsese’s The Irishman spans decades, from the 1940s to the late 1990s, which is one reason why de-aging technology is so critical to its storytelling.
It also took several years for the film itself to come to fruition.
At a press conference after Friday’s press screening of The Irishman, Scorsese and star Robert De Niro (who plays the titular Irish hitman, Frank Sheehan) talked about how they first met about the project 10 years ago, after DeNiro read Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses, upon which the film is based.
A few years later, they started talking to Al Pacino, who ended up playing Jimmy Hoffa, the legendary union leader whose mysterious disappearance in 1975 is the centerpiece around which The Irishman turns. It marks the first time Pacino and Scorsese have collaborated on a film together. Everyone involved kept getting distracted by various other projects and obligations before they were finally able to film, but the long development ended up being a technological benefit.