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Netflix is getting involved with “The Irishman,” the proposed movie based on Charles Brandt’s chilling book about the late Russell Bufalino reportedly ordering a mob hit on Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Entertainment industry reports last week said Netflix acquired the rights to the movie, which will be directed by Martin Scorsese and star Robert DeNiro. The two have collaborated on such films as “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Brandt said Monday of the recent development.

He said “The Irishman” has been in the works for years. The rights to Brandt’s book, “I Heard You Paint Houses,” were acquired in 2008.

The movie gets its name from Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, the admitted Hoffa hitman in Brandt’s 2004 book. Sheeran, a World War II veteran who also rose through the ranks of the Teamsters, was a confidant of Hoffa and a driver for Bufalino, who lived in Kingston for much of his life.

Hoffa’s body has never been found since his disappearance from a Detroit-area restaurant on July 30, 1975. But Sheeran’s story as told by Brandt attempts to solve the mystery with his confession he shot Hoffa twice inside a Detroit house at the direction of Bufalino.

Brandt, a former prosecutor in Delaware who makes his home in Idaho, said his book is in its third printing with 57 newly added pages on “Stories That Could Not Be Told Before.”

It’s been years since he spoke with anyone connected to the film, Brandt said, but he’s heard high praise for Steven Zallian’s screenplay. Brandt said he was told that “it was on the order of ‘The Godfather.’”

Zallian, who received an Oscar for his work in “Schindler’s List,” kept pretty close to the book, Brandt said.

Sheeran’s admission provided no relief to James Hoffa Jr. While campaigning for then presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, Hoffa Jr. said during an interview with the Times Leader that he read the book and couldn’t rule out Sheeran’s story.

“The book, I don’t think that it’s an odd thing, but Frank Sheeran was a strange guy, and the fact that he was in that weekend for a wedding … or whatever, was awful, was a tremendous coincidence,” Hoffa Jr. said.

“I don’t know what happened to my father, but you have some broad outlines of what happened,” he added. “I guess I could tell you nothing’s impossible, but there’s a lot of coincidences.”

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One of the area’s most notorious figures, reputed mob boss Russell Bufalino, right, will be featured in the film ‘The Irishman’ based on the book ‘I Heard You Paint Houses.’ It’s about the reported hit carried out on Bufalino’s orders by Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran on labor leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975. Bufalino is seen here testifying in 1958 before the Senate Rackets Committee.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_AP_580703038-3.jpg.optimal.jpgOne of the area’s most notorious figures, reputed mob boss Russell Bufalino, right, will be featured in the film ‘The Irishman’ based on the book ‘I Heard You Paint Houses.’ It’s about the reported hit carried out on Bufalino’s orders by Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran on labor leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975. Bufalino is seen here testifying in 1958 before the Senate Rackets Committee. AP file photo

By Jerry Lynott

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Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.