Hollywood veteran Robert De Niro is set to play the lead in filmmaker Barry Levinson's mob drama Wise Guys set at Warner Bros.
Wise Guys is a period piece centred on Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, a pair of Italian Americans running two separate crime families during the mid-20th century.
According to Deadliine, De Niro will be taking on both key roles in the film scheduled to be released theatrically.
Goodfellas scribe Nicholas Pileggi has penned the script. Notably, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, which also starred De Niro, was based on Pileggi’s 1985 book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family. However, the book is reportedly unrelated to Levinson’s film.
Wise Guys marks De Niro and Levinson's fifth collaboration following The Wizard of Lies, What Just Happened, Wag the Dog and Sleepers.
The upcoming film also marks De Niro’s return to the genre of crime drama. He had earlier starred in Goodfellas, The Godfather Part II, Mean Streets, Casino, and more recently in Joker and The Irishman. The actor is currently re-teaming with Scorsese for Apple’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
