The Irishman delayed because 'young' Robert De Niro doesn't look threatening enough after CGI

The actor is being made to look decades younger for flashback scenes

Martin Scorsese has revealed that The Irishman is being held up because of its expensive CGI scenes.

The gangster film, which is expected to be released on Netflix this autumn, is currently going through a digital “youthification” process that will make Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci look decades younger.

According to the “concerned” filmmaker, the effects as they stand are altering the “intensity” and “threat” in the actors’ eyes.

He told director Joanna Hogg on A24 podcast A Bigger Canvas: “We shot as much 35 as possible. However, there’s a great deal of CGI because we’re doing this youthification of De Niro, Pesci, and Al Pacino. They had to be CGI. They had to be a camera with three lenses. I was just crazy.

“Now, certain shots need more work on the eyes, need more work on why these exactly the same eyes from the plate shot, but the wrinkles and things have changed,” he added. ”Does it change the eyes at all? If that’s the case, what was in the eyes that I liked? Was it intensity? Was it gravitas? Was it threat?”

Scorsese admitted that he’s concerned about the outcome because “...we’re so used to watching them as the older faces.”

Production began on the filmmaker’s long-gestating mob drama in 2016 with lucrative rights picked up at Cannes Film Festival. Netflix later acquired worldwide rights to the film for a reported $105m setting a budget of $125m.

The film also stars Boardwalk Empire alumni Bobby Cannavale, Jack Huston and Stephen Graham who will play Genovese mob boss Tony “Pro” Provenzano - a top associate of Jimmy Hoffa, the character whose mysterious disappearance hands the film its plot. Harvey Keitel and Ray Romano also star.