Martin Scorsese’s new gangster movie, The Irishman, will close the London Film Festival.
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel star in Scorsese’s Netflix film.
The 76-year-old Taxi Driver and Goodfellas director said he is “extremely honoured” that the movie will close the event.
“This picture was many years in the making. It’s a project that Robert De Niro and I started talking about a long time ago, and we wanted to make it the way it needed to be made,” he said.
“It’s also a picture that all of us could only have made at this point in our lives. We’re all very excited to be bringing The Irishman to London.”
The cast and director are expected to attend the Closing Night Gala of the BFI London Film Festival in October.
Described as “an epic saga of organised crime in post-war America”, the film is adapted from the book I Heard You Paint Houses.
BFI London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle said: “British Film Institute Fellow Scorsese is one of the true greats of cinema, as both a creator and a tireless champion of preservation and film history.
“Here he and his creative team have delivered an epic of breathtakingly audacious scale and complexity, exploring relationships of trust and betrayal, regret and remorselessness, which dominated a period of American history.
“This is a major occasion for film lovers and I cannot wait to share this film with UK audiences.”
The premiere will take place on Sunday October 13 in London, with preview screenings in cinemas across the UK.
The film will premiere at the New York Film Festival in September and is expected to be released on streaming service Netflix in the autumn.
The 63rd BFI London Film Festival, with American Express, runs from October 2 to 13.