Author Charles Brandt on Scorsese, De Niro and his friendship with mafia hitman Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran

Charles Brandt’s book on the guy who shot Jimmy Hoffa is being made into a movie by Martin Scorsese, writes Marjorie Brennan.

Author Charles Brandt on Scorsese, De Niro and his friendship with mafia hitman Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran

Charles Brandt’s book on the guy who shot Jimmy Hoffa is being made into a movie by Martin Scorsese, writes Marjorie Brennan.

For most authors, getting a film deal for their book is the icing on the cake, a welcome bonus after the hard work of getting it written and published.

But when one of cinema’s most revered directors wants to adapt your work, it’s a completely different ball game.

When one of the most famous actors in film history wants to play the lead role, it becomes a ‘pinch me, I’m dreaming’ moment.

Just ask Charles Brandt, whose book I Heard You Paint Houses is being brought to the screen by Martin Scorsese, with Robert De Niro in the lead role.

“I was jumping up and down, doing cartwheels, it was incredible. Marty is the perfect man for this script, for this book. Especially the subject, that’s his wheelhouse, as we say,” says Brandt.

The subject of Brandt’s bestselling book is Frank Sheeran, a former labour union leader with Irish roots, who became a hitman for the mafia, and confessed to one of the great unsolved crimes in modern American history, the killing of union boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Scorsese is back on familiar ground with his adaptation, called The Irishman, which is due to be released on Netflix next year with a heavyweight cast, including Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino.

The film has been in gestation since 2009 and Brandt, a former homicide investigator and prosecutor, has been on board from the start.

“I went to a meeting with Marty at the Parker Meridien in New York that was supposed to last an hour and we ended up talking for four hours,” he says.

The process of getting the book to the screen was a long one, however, with the usual bumps in the road, often described in the business as ‘development hell’.

“I needed patience, so I prayed for patience — I was raised Catholic so I knew how to do it,” he laughs.

“The next thing was I got a call from Bob De Niro, years later, in 2016, and he wanted to know if I planned on being in New York any time soon.”

Brandt, who now lives in Sun Valley, Idaho, was soon on a plane back to the Big Apple, where he attended a series of script meetings with Scorsese, De Niro and the Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian, who was writing the adaptation.

“They rented me a hotel room near Marty’s office and I got a series of scripts I was to make notes on, and then we’d have a meeting. It was Martin Scorsese, Bob De Niro, Steve Zaillian, and Charlie Brandt,” he laughs.

“We did that for two months and the final script, I said, ‘I have no notes. This is the Frank Sheeran I knew and this is his journey.’ That was the last script I got, then they began filming.”

Brandt became friends with Sheeran, whose father was from Dublin, after he was hired to secure the contract killer’s early release from jail on medical grounds.

In the course of five years of interviews with Brandt, Sheeran confessed to more than 25 murders, including that of Teamster boss Hoffa, who had been Sheeran’s friend and mentor. Hoffa’s body has never been found.

“Frank and I became very close, there was mutual affection and respect,” says Brandt.

“He knew what I did and respected what I did, even though I was on the opposite side to his world, a prosecutor and a homicide investigator, and he was a perpetrator of homicides.

"As my wife put it, he was so charming, when she left his company, she would have to remind herself he was a murderer.”

Their shared Catholic background helped Brandt and Sheeran to connect and also meant Brandt filled something of a ‘father confessor’ role in their relationship.

The tapes of Sheeran confessing his involvement in the Hoffa murder to Brandt were later subpoenaed by the FBI in their investigation.

Charles Brandt
Charles Brandt

“Being raised Catholic was very important — he’d introduce me as either the Holy Roller or Mr Prosecutor, depending on the technique I was using.

"He was tortured by his conscience as far as the Hoffa murder was concerned. Frank was a strict Catholic, his father studied to be a priest for five years and his mother went to Mass every morning.

"He didn’t even know there was such a thing as organised crime until he fell in with the mafia and became an integral part of it.”

Playing a gangster isn’t exactly fresh territory for De Niro, and one of his many memorable roles was as another Irish mafia hitman, Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas. Brandt is anticipating that his portrayal of Sheeran will be equally celebrated.

“Of course, Bob is part-Irish, through his mother. I was on the set a couple of times and everyone was talking about the amazing job he was doing, the way he was channelling Frank.

"To see the make-up job that was done on him, it was incredible — he looked exactly like Frank, it was scary.

"One time we were chatting and I was telling him what a great job he’d done and he bent over and kissed me on the cheek, so the more we talked the more kisses I got.

"We finished and he must have kissed me five times. ‘Six times,’ said my wife, ‘I counted’.”

While Brandt has written several true-crime books, including on which the movie Donnie Brasco was based, his own story — the grandson of Italian immigrants who could not read or write, who went from English teacher to welfare investigator in Harlem to a DA — sounds like good material for a movie.

“I’m in the process of writing a memoir. It’s heartwarming for me, because I came from a very loving family. My grandparents were born in Italy, as was my oldest uncle, and they settled in Staten Island.

"They had a farm, my grandfather peddled his produce; they were what I call ‘Perry Como Italians’.”

Brandt also has roots in Ireland, and he is looking forward to his first visit here, for the I.NY festival in Limerick, where he will discuss his work and his relationship with Frank Sheeran.

When Sheeran died in 2003, aged 83, Brandt was one of the pallbearers at his funeral.

“He got absolution from the hospital priest. In a sense it was sad, but he died the way he wanted to die — in a state of grace, that was his goal.

"I was a father confessor to him, I played that role.

"When he got absolution, the priest didn’t require the details, just that he was truly sorry for the life he lived.”

I.NY Festival 2018 is part of the Global Irish Festival series and takes place at venues across Limerick City from Oct 7-14. For tickets and information visit www.thisisINY.com. The Story of Frank Sheeran with author Charles Brandt in conversation with Michael Clifford takes place on Wed, Oct 10, at 8pm in LIT Millennium Theatre. Tickets from €15-€20.

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