Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me?
That’s what I imagine Martin Scorsese said to Joe Pesci when Joe Pesci told the director he wanted nothing to do with his upcoming project The Irishman, which sold for $50 million after a Cannes bidding war to STX Entertainment.
Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are on board to star in the adaptation of Charles Brandt’s biopic about Frank Sheeran—no relation to redheaded singer Ed Sheeran, as far as we know—a mob-connected union guy who claimed before his death to have killed Jimmy Hoffa as well as involvement in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Pesci has not been in a movie since 2010, and is believed to be generally over the movie business. It may be that he just doesn’t want to get whacked again. Whatever Pesci’s beef, the Hollywood Reporter says Scorsese “remains hopeful” that he can convince Pesci to join. It would be pretty cool.