Although Netflix originally refused to give their Original Films a traditional theatrical release and chose to premiere them solely on their streaming platform, that approach has changed in recent months. In an attempt to get some major Oscar nominations for films such as Alfonso Cuaron‘s highly acclaimed Roma, the streaming giant has begun giving certain films a limited theatrical window.
It seems the same will be happening with Martin Scorsese‘s highly anticipated mob drama, The Irishman. Star Robert De Niro appeared at the Marrakech Film Festival late last week and confirmed that Netflix would give the film a big screen release:
“We’ve talked about it with Netflix. They are going to do a presentation of our film the way it should be, in a theatre, in certain venues, the best theatrical venues there can be. How they resolve it is, in the beginning, they will show it on the big screen, we’re talking about big venues where it would play, where it should play, and what happens after that I’m not sure”.
The film is based on Charles Brandt‘s book I Heard You Paint Houses and will star De Niro as Frank Sheehan, a labour union official and mob hitman with ties to the death of Jimmy Hoffa. Al Pacino, Anna Paquin, Bobby Carnavale and Joe Pesci will co-star.
Outside of Netflix’s wish to reel in some major awards nominations and wanting a theatrical release to help their chances, another reason for the cinematic release is that the film has cost a whopping $140 million in production costs, mostly because the characters have had to be aged down digitally, and there’s a demand to see that on the big screen.
This talk is occurring at the same time that Cuaron’s Roma is currently on its limited theatrical run before it hits all Netflix territories on Friday, December 14. With both being two of Netflix’s biggest films ever, expect to see a similar release strategy for any other “prestige” films they release in the coming years.
The Irishman should see a release in the second half of 2019.
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