It was originally simply titled The Irishman, but it has since earned the name Kill the Irishman and it’s actually getting a limited release this weekend. Kill the Irishman teams the director of the 2004 edition of The Punisher, Jonathan Hensleigh, with the man who played the 2008 version of the comic book character, Ray Stevenson.
In Kill the Irishman Stevenson plays real life mobster Danny Greene, a man who lorded over Cleveland’s criminal underworld during the late 1970s. Christopher Walken co-stars as the infamous loan-sharking nightclub owner Shondor Birns, Val Kilmer plays a Cleveland cop who befriends Greene and Vincent D’Onofrio plays John Nardi a one-time influential associate of the Cleveland crime family who eventually formed an alliance with Greene and turned against his crime family. Is that enough talent to get you interested?
Hensleigh co-wrote the film with Jeremy Walters based on Rick Porrello’s “To Kill The Irishman: The War That Crippled The Mafia”. Among the names co-starring you have Paul Sorvino, Vinnie Jones, Steve Schirripa, Fionnula Flanagan, Laura Ramsey, Linda Cardellini and Bob Gunton.
This film isn’t to be compared to The Irishman, a film Martin Scorsese is expected to be putting together with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel rumored to be starring. That film, should it ever get made, would feature De Niro as Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran, who is reputed to have carried out more than 25 mob murders. Steve Zaillian (American Gangster) was last reported as the screenwriter adapting Charles Brandt’s 2004 book. Last word on that project was in December when De Niro insinuated it might be Scorsese’s next film after Hugo Cabret.
As for Kill the Irishman, it hits theaters this Friday, March 11 in New York, Los Angeles and, obviously, Cleveland. On March 18th it expands to Detroit, Chicago and Boston. I am currently trying to get my hands on a screener, but until then, all I can offer you are a few pics right here and the trailer directly below.
