Robert De Niro will once again work with Goodfellas scribe Nicholas Pileggi on an upcoming mob film titled Wise Guys.
Pileggi, who also co-wrote the De Niro–starring Martin Scorsese film Casino, will be working with director Barry Levinson to craft the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film will be an interesting challenge for De Niro, as the 79-year-old two-time Academy Award–winner will be playing dual roles as the real-life Italian American mob bosses and rivals Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, sources revealed to the publication.
Back together: Robert De Niro, 79, will team up again with Goodfellas scribe Nicholas Pileggi to star in the film Wise Guys, about the rivalry between real-life Italian American mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello; seen in April in Las Vegas
Wise Guys will have an additional Goodfellas connection, as that film’s producer, Irwin Winkler, is a producer on the upcoming film.
Pileggi wrote Goodfellas based on his 1985 non-fiction book Wiseguy, though the new film doesn’t appear to have any connection to his similarly titled book.
The movie will be the first original feature for Warner Bros. Discovery, and it is reportedly intended for a more-lucrative theatrical release, rather than a direct-to-streaming release.
The movie will focus on Genovese and Costello as they ruled their crime families mid-20th century.
In his lane: Pileggi co-wrote Goodfellas and Casino with director Martin Scorsese, both starring De Niro. Barry Levinson is set to direct Wise Guys
Dual role: De Niro will be playing dual roles as both Genovese (L) and Costello (R). In a bid to consolidate power in 1957, Genovese ordered the assassination of Costello, who ultimately survived
In a bid to consolidate power in 1957, Genovese ordered the assassination of Costello, who ultimately survived, though his injuries led him to step back, allowing Genovese to take control before he was sent to prison just two years later.
According to THR, Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav is passionate about Wise Guys and is pushing for a high-profile theatrical release after paring back some of the studio’s DC Comics projects and moving away from it’s previous pro-streaming approach.
De Niro has previously worked with director Barry Levinson on Wag The Dog (1997) and What Just Happened (2008), with the HBO movie The Wizard Of Lies (2017) being their most recent collaboration.
Levinson is best known for a string of 1980s classics, including The Natural; Good Morning, Vietnam; and Rain Main.
True Believer: Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav is passionate about Wise Guys and is pushing for a high-profile theatrical release; De Niro seen with the late Ray Liotta in Goodfellas
Expert role: De Niro played a major supporting role in Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), before returning for another mob classic Casino (1995); seen with Sharon Stone in the latter film
De Niro played a major supporting role in Scorsese’s 1990 classic as James Conway, an older mentor figure to the film’s lead, the late Ray Liotta, who played real-life gangster Henry Hill.
Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino also starred, and Pesci and Bracco were nominated for Oscars.
He worked on another Pileggi-written screenplay for 1995’s Casino, which received strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Sharon Stone, though many critics treated it as a less-successful rehash of Goodfellas.
Subsequently, the film has been reappraised in an even more positive light.
De Niro has also recently reunited with both films’ director, Martin Scorsese, on the upcoming true crime film Killers Of The Flower Moon, which will pair him with another of the directors’ muses, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Source: | Dailymail.co.uk
