Hey Marty & Bob... "I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES"!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

After failing to get THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE off the ground last year, Martin Scorsese is plotting another project which could mark a high profile reunion with his famous collaborator Robert De Niro for the first time since 1995's CASINO. Variety say Scorsese will direct I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES at Paramount from a script by Steve Zaillian, the guy who Scorsese trusted with his life long passion project GANGS OF NEW YORK. He's also the guy that Scorsese hired for SCHLINDER'S LIST before Marty instead did CAPE FEAR with De Niro and handed the project to Spielberg. Zaillian most recently wrote AMERICAN GANGSTER. The movie is based on Charles Brandt's true crime book...

Pic€™s title refers to mob slang for contract killings, and the resulting blood splatter on walls and floors. Book was written by Charles Brandt, who befriended Sheeran shortly before the latter€™s death in 2003. Among the crimes Sheeran confessed to Brandt, according to the 2004 book, was the killing and dismemberment of Hoffa, carried out on orders from mob boss Russell Bufalino.

Even though THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE is no longer a Scorsese project, it's still in the hands of De Niro who is expected to make the movie with Michael Mann at Paramount. Scorsese has just completed his crime thriller SHUTTER ISLAND which will open October 2009 starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max Von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson and Elias Koteas.