Scorcese, De Niro return to the mob

Rex Features

Director Martin Scorcese is to reteam with Robert De Niro for a new movie based on the New York mob.

The pair will adapt Charles Brandt book I Heard You Paint Horses, with De Niro playing assassin Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran.

Sheeran was one of the men rumoured to have killed Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa and was reputed to have been involved in 25 mob murders.

The movie will be produced by Paramount Pictures, with American Gangster scribe Steve Zillian writing the screenplay, reports Variety.

Scorcese and De Niro last teamed up as voiceover artists in 2004's Shark Tale.