Robert De Niro has finally met his match in Wise Guys, a new film that will find him trying to kill Robert De Niro.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two-for-one special will star De Niro as both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, a pair of real-life crime bosses that ran rival families in the middle of the last century. Genovese tried to assassinate Costello in 1957, and — 65-year-old spoiler alert — Costello’s survival broke Genovese’s grip on power, forcing him into retirement.
Wise Guys will be directed by Barry Levinson, who made his name with Good Morning, Vietnam, Rain Man, and Wag the Dog, but who has spent his later years helming quiet character studies with aging titans. Since 2010 he’s led a series of parades from HBO lots to the Emmys nomination ceremony, teaming up with De Niro (The Wizard of Lies) and Al Pacino (You Don’t Know Jack, Paterno).
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If that doesn’t get your hopes up, the script comes from Nicholas Pileggi, who helped adapt his own 1985 book Wiseguy into the 1990 Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas. That film co-starred De Niro, meaning every major player on Wise Guys has done exceptional work with at least one of their collaborators.
And if Wise Guys isn’t enough De Niro for you, the 78-year-old has a couple more rounds in the chamber. He’ll reunite with Scorsese on Killers of the Flower Moon costarring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jesse Plemons, and he’s part of David O. Russell’s sweeping ensemble in Amsterdam.