The King of Comedy (film) character fails to differentiate between his fantasies and reality in much the same way. Scorsese sought to achieve the same with the film so that, in his words, the "fantasy is more real than reality". Rupert Pupkin has been compared to Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver": both characters have serious issues with reality testing, that is drawing the line between outer objective and inner subjective reality. In her review, entertainment columnist Marilyn Beck approved Johnny Carson's refusal to participate in "The King of Comedy", supposedly because he feared the film could inspire psychopaths like John Hinckley. Beck considered "The King
The Irishman (2019 film) were revealed to have joined the cast. Sebastian Maniscalco was revealed as being a part of the cast later. In July 2017, Zack Sharf reported that the film's script was adapted by Steven Zaillian to be presented as a series of flashbacks of an older lead character, Frank Sheeran portrayed by Robert De Niro, depicted as recollecting his many criminal activities over several decades: ""The Irishman" will include flashbacks that span decades, and De Niro is set to play Sheeran in all of them. He'll appear as young as 30 years old." Filming was set to start in August 2017,