DeNiro and Marty were initially going to do Frankie Machine, about the San Diego mob. DeNiro had read I Heard You Paint Houses to prepare for the Machine role and realized he wanted to do Sheeran's story instead.
At 2:00
"...the successful annihilation of organized crime's subculture in America would rock the 'legitimate' world's foundation, which would ultimately force fundamental social changes and redistributions of wealth and power in this country. Meyer Lansky's dream was to bond the two worlds together so that one could not survive without the other." - Dan E. Moldea
