The new film will be the latest collaboration between Robert De Niro, left, and Martin Scorsese, seen here in Hollywood in 2003.The new film will be the latest collaboration between Robert De Niro, left, and Martin Scorsese, seen here in Hollywood in 2003. (Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press)

Director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro will return to Mob territory for a film based on a real-life contract killer.

According to a report in the trade newspaper Variety, Scorsese is set to direct De Niro in the movie adaptation of the book I Heard You Paint Houses, an underworld slang phrase referring to contract killing splattering blood against walls or onto floors.

Scorsese and De Niro will co-produce the film, with the latter to portray lead character Frank Sheeran.

Before his death in 2003, Sheeran confessed to lawyer and author Charles Brandt to having killed more than two dozen people on behalf of Mob boss Russell Bufalino.

He revealed to Brandt — a former homicide prosecutor and Delaware deputy attorney general — that Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa is among those he killed.

The film will be the latest pairing of Scorsese and De Niro, whose past collaborations have included movies like Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Casino.