Ray Romano has joined Martin Scorsese’s gangster movie ‘The Irishman’.
The ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ actor will play Bill Bufalino, a teamster lawyer with ties to the mob, alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, Variety reports.
Romano worked with the ‘Goodfellas’ director on the HBO drama ‘Vinyl’, which Scorsese executive produced.
‘The Irishman’ is an adaptation of the book ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ which follows the exploits of Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran – a high ranking Mafia hitman tasked with carrying out the "biggest mob hit in history".
De Niro, 73, will be playing Sheeran with fellow gangster film icon Al Pacino portraying Jimmy Hoffa, while 74-year-old Pesci is expected to portray Russell Bufalino.
Steve Zaillian, who wrote the script for the gangster flick, is also reported to be executive producing the movie.
The film marks a reunion for the trio of De Niro, Scorsese and Pesci who previously worked together on cinema classics ‘Raging Bull’, Goodfellas’ and ‘Casino’.
The three Hollywood legends are to bring another story to life on the big screen for the first time since 1995 after Scorsese’s long-term editor Thelma Schoonmaker spilled that Pesci had agreed to a role in the gangster flick.
In an interview with Crave Online discussing Scorsese’s future projects, Schoonmaker said: "He wants to make more films like [‘Silence’], that are spiritual, basically, but not set in 17th century Japan. In the modern time.
"So hopefully we’ll be able to make that. Not the next one, the next one is the next one is the next one is ‘The Irishman’, which is De Niro and Joe Pesci and elderly gangsters. So that’ll be very different from ‘Silence’. But maybe the one after that!"
The rights of the film has already been bought by Netflix who will be distributing the film in 2019.
The movie will be the tenth time that De Niro and Scorsese, 74, will have teamed-up together.
Ray Romano joins Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman
