2020-01-23 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 22 JANUARY 2020 AWARDS 1

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t’s a mix of relief and disbelief,”

says producer Jane Rosenthal of The

Irishman’s best picture nomina-

tion, more than a decade after she

began work on the crime epic. As

the longtime producing partner of Robert

De Niro, Rosenthal became

involved with the Netflix

film — which tells the story

of Mafia hitman Frank

Sheeran (De Niro) and

his claim to having killed

Teamster union leader

Jimmy Hoffa — in 2007.

At the time, Netflix was

still a mail-order DVD rental

service and the de-aging

technology that would be

required for De Niro to play

Sheeran in his 20s as well

as his 60s was still several

years off from beta test-

ing. More than a decade of

technological development later, Rosenthal

found herself on opening night at the 57th

New York Film Festival in September 2019,

flanked by Joe Pesci, Al Pacino and Martin

Scorsese, as well as the streaming service’s

chief content officer Ted Sarandos, at the film’s

world premiere.

“It was always something

Bob and I wanted — to

bring [Scorsese and him]

back together again,” she

says. “It just took a little

longer than we thought

it would.”

Rosenthal talked to THR

about that long develop-

ment process, a 2013 table

read that inspired them to

keep going and her final,

emotional day on set.

Martin Scorsese was the one

who actually suggested that

The Irishman

Martin Scorsese reunited with Robert De Niro

and Joe Pesci — and collaborated for the first

time with Al Pacino — for a career-defining crime

saga of epic proportions BY MIA GALUPPO

you reach out to Robert De Niro when he was

starting TriBeCa Productions. Before

The Irishman, had it been a long time since you

three worked together creatively?

JANE ROSENTHAL Obviously, Bob and Marty

talk all the time, and Marty has also been a

huge supporter of what we have done with the

Tribeca Film Festival over the years. But this

is the first opportunity I have had to work with

him on a movie since The Color of Money.

After having known each other profes-

sionally for so long, and having all worked

separately on projects, what was it like to finally

come together?

I would just watch the two of them. When you

have Scorsese and De Niro together on some-

thing, you just let them do what they do. The

one thing about both of them that I’ve learned

throughout the years is that they are always

open to suggestions. To know them individu-

ally is one thing, but when you watch them

together they become greater than — it’s like

one and one equals five. I am just thrilled that

we are able to have the opportunity to finally

make this movie. Ted Sarandos and Scott

Stuber took a chance on this after so long,

and we were finally able to make this after so

many years.

After sitting on the project for more than a

decade, was there ever a worry in your mind

that, even though it was a passion project for

everyone involved, it would never get made?

Ye s. (Laughs.) The majority of the time. Except

when we actually started shooting. Up until

BEST PICTURE

VITAL STATS

STUDIO Netflix

RELEASE DATE Nov. 27

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE

N/A

DIRECTOR Martin Scorsese

CAST

Robert De Niro,

Al Pacino, Joe Pesci

TOP AWARDS

10 Oscar noms,

10 BAFTA noms, 5 Globe noms,

4 SAG Award noms