Actor Joe Pesc has reportedly turn down a role in Scorsese's mob epic, The Irishman. The Hollywood Reporter has said that Pesci refused Scorsese's offer of a role. Pesci has said in the past that he is retired from acting having last appeared in 2010's Love Ranch.
It was confirmed this week that the film had sourced the funding needed to guarantee it's production. Paramount reached a deal with Fabrica de Cine through STX entertainment for the picture's international distribution rights last Saturday.
The deal was made at this year's Cannes International Film Festival with the price of the rights thought to be around $50 million. Fabrica is now charged with finding suitable distributors for the movie across the world. The Irishman is also set to feature some of the most iconic on screen mobsters together for the first time.
Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are reportedtly on board for the movie. This will also be Pacino's and Scorsese's first time working together on the same production. Schindler's List screenwriter Steve Zaillian has already penned the screenplay. Zaillian has written an adaption of Charles Brandt's 2005 non fiction novel, I Heard You Paint Houses.
Brandt's novel charts a series of interviews he conducted with mob hitman Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran. For a quarter of a century Sheeran was a notorious mob hitman who fought in World War Two and was rumoured to be involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.