Yes, you read that right. I’m hearing 80-year-old Barry Levinson’s “Wise Guys,” which just started production, is going to cost David Sazlav’s Warner Bros a whopping $50 million.
It’s set to become Warners’ first original feature of the Warner Bros. Discovery era — a period mobster drama starring Robert De Niro in dual roles.
De Niro and the mobster genre go hand in hand and “Wise Guys,” very much intended for theatrical distribution, has been touted as Levinson’s return to big and bold studio filmmaking. However, I don’t know if giving Levinson $50 million to make a movie is the smartest idea, he hasn’t made anything great (theatrically speaking) since 1997’s “Wag the Dog.”
Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote “Wiseguy,” the 1985 book that was the basis for ”Goodfellas”, wrote the screenplay. This will either be a total disaster or a runaway winner. Which is it?
The film will revolve around Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, two Italian-American crime bosses of the 20th century. In 1957, Genovese attempted to assassinate Costello but failed, then things got out of hand ..
Weirdly enough, De Niro is set to play both main characters.
Levinson was all the rage in the ‘80s and ‘90s, a go-to filmmaker for smart, adult-oriented Oscar contenders. His résumé is honestly one of the most underrated in Hollywood: “Diner”, “The Natural”, “Good Morning Vietnam”, “Bugsy”, “Sleepers”, “Rain Man”, “Wag the Dog” and many more.