Acclaimed Irish director Jim Sheridan (no relation... unfortunately) has written a script based on the life of notorious Boston mobster Whitey Bulger. Sheridan has adapted the book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, with co-writer Nye Heron and hopes to start shooting later this year. Bulger worked his way up from henchman for a Boston crime boss, to working his own gang that dealt smuggling arms to the IRA, amongst other things. Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed is thought to be loosely based on the still on-the-run Bulger. Sheridan recently wrapped the drama Brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire.
