American filmmaker Martin Scorsese recently revealed that he could not get the producers to finance his film The Irishman for nine years.
At the director’s roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, the 77 year old director said that both him and actor Robert De Niro were planning to work together again after their last film Casino (1995).
De Niro then offered the book I Heard You Paint Houses to Scorsese after which the two decided to adapt it for a feature film.
Scorsese then went on to direct Silence, when they discovered the de-aging technology that would allow old actors to be shown as young ones through visual effects. But the film could not get producers for years until the online streaming service, Netflix, came on board.
“[With Netflix] financially, the film would be complete backing, willing to take the risk with the Computer Generated Imagery. And, certainly the main thing for me was creative freedom,” he said.
Scorsese then also said that the streaming platform allowed the film to have its own shelf life as many of his earlier films were pulled down from the theaters within a week including the 1982 The King of Comedy.
The Irishman stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino. It was released on Netflix on 27 November and met with critical acclaim.