Walken, Kilmer in new Irish mobster movie

Signed on for film about life of Danny Greene

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Iconic actor Christopher Walken

Photo by Ian West/PA

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Hollywood heavyweights Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer have joined the cast of  upcoming film "The Irishman" which will tell the true story of the life of infamous Irish-American mobster Danny Greene.

Northern Irish actor and star of HBO's "Rome" Ray Stevenson has signed on to play Danny Greene in the crime flick.

Walken is cast as loan shark and nightclub owner Shondor Birns, while Kilmer will play a Cleveland police detective who befriends Greene.

The latest film to come out of Hollywood’s obsession with Irish mob dramas, “The Irishman” is based on the true story of the life of Greene, a prolific and feared gangster who incited a nationwide war against the Italian mob in Cleveland’s Mafia wars in the 1970s.

Greene, a former altar boy born to first generation Irish-American immigrants, had his own gang of young Irish thugs called The Celtic Club, who were rivals of the Italian Cleveland crime family.

In 1976, 36 bombs exploded around the Cleveland area, earning the city the name, “Bomb City, U.S.A.”

Jonathan Hensleigh, ("The Punisher”) will direct Stevenson, Walken and Kilmer in “The Irishman.” Hensleigh also wrote the screenplay alongside Jeremy Walters ("Dali"), which is inspired by Rick Porrello’s book "To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia.”

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