Robert De Niro is returning to the gangster drama genre, and he's sharing the screen with a Hollywood legend. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Robert De Niro is set to star opposite Robert De Niro in Wise Guys for Warner Bros., a period mobster drama. The beloved actor plays two roles in the film, both leading parts.

Wise Guys is intended to be released theatrically, with Barry Levinson helming the film. His previous work includes The Natural, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Rain Man. The latter, which starred Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, won the director a Best Picture and Best Director Oscar following its release in 1988. De Niro has worked with Levinson on another project, Wag the Dog, which was released in 1997 and received two Oscar nominations. The pair joined again in 2008 for What Just Happened, a film following a Hollywood producer who must overcome several challenges to get his picture on the big screen.

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THR Describes Wise Guys as a film centered on Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, two Italian-American crime bosses that ran their respective families in the middle of the 20th century. In 1957, Genovese conducted a failed assassination attempt on Costello, wounding him and forcing the mafia boss into early retirement. According to THR's sources, De Niro is set to play both Costello and Genovese.

Nicholas Pileggi is writing the script for Wise Guys, and he has experience in the genre. The author is famous for his book Wiseguy, the basis for the 1990 Martin Scorsese classic Goodfellas, a film De Niro starred in. Irwin Winkler, best known for Producing the Rocky movies and Goodfellas, will produce Wise Guys.

Wise Guys is a Return to Form For Robert De Niro

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Robert De Niro was just an up-and-coming actor in the '70s; however, he was already taking part in several gangster flicks at the time. The actor played Johnny Boy in Mean Streets in 1973, which starred Harvey Keitel and David Proval alongside him. He followed that up a year later with the iconic film, The Godfather Part II. He took over the role of a young Vito Corleone, navigating his way through New York City as he tries to make a name for himself after leaving Italy.

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In 1990 De Niro starred in Goodfellas as James Conway, and five years later, he would star in Casino as Sam 'Ace' Rothstein. His most recent mafia film is The Irishman in 2019, by long-time collaborator Martin Scorsese. The movie saw the actor at different points in his life, using digital de-aging technology to pull off the feat. Next, you can find Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon for Apple TV+, as fans patiently wait for his performances in Wise Guys.