Digital effects will make Robert De Niro look decades younger in his new Scorsese movie

Robert De Niro in “The Godfather: Part
II.”
Paramount

It looks like the latest fad of using CGI to make iconic actors
look like their younger selves isn’t stopping soon.

The producer of Martin Scorsese’s next movie “The Irishman,”
which will reunite both the Oscar-winning director with
Robert De Niro as well as De Niro and Al Pacino, has
revealed that it will feature technology that will make De Niro
and his fellow costars look younger.

“Well, it’s an extraordinary technology that we’ve been looking
at,” producer Gastón Pavlovich told Cinemablend. “You don’t use prosthetics,
makeup, they have acting and the technology is able to have them
go through different time ages without the prosthetics. So we’ve
seen some tests and it looks extraordinary. We were able to film
Bob and just do a scene, and we saw it come down to when he was
like 20, 40, 60, so we’re looking forward to that, from that
point of view, for ‘The Irishman’ … Imagine seeing what De Niro
looked like in ‘The Godfather 2’ days, that’s pretty much how
you’re going to see him again.”

Like Scorsese’s latest release “Silence,” “The Irishman” has
been on the shelf waiting to be made for years. A big reason
for was matching the schedules of its huge stars, who
include not just De Niro and Pacino but also Harvey Keitel
and possibly Joe Pesci (he hasn’t confirmed involvement).

Young Robert Downey Jr. in
“Captain America: Civil War.”
Marvel

Based on the Charles Brandt book “I Heard You Paint Houses,” the
story looks at the hitman Frank Sheeran, who admitted to
killing Jimmy Hoffa. De Niro will play Sheeran in the movie.
Sheeran’s recollection of his days in the mob will involve
flashbacks in which De Niro and the rest of the cast will look how they
did in the 1970s. 

In the last few years, we’ve seen this technology used in a
number of movies. A younger version of Michael Douglas was
featured in “Ant-Man,” a younger Robert Downey Jr. was in
“Captain America: Civil War,” and just recently in “Rogue One: A
Star Wars Story,” a young Carrie Fisher shows up as Princess
Leia.

But you’ll have to wait a little longer to see CGI De Niro,
Pacino, Keitel, and Pesci on the screen. “The Irishman” isn’t
slated for released until 2018.