Robert De Niro is returning to his Mafia roots — and Michael Mann is taking him there.
In what sounds like very good news for fans of 1995’s Heat, the last film De Niro and Mann worked on together, Variety reports that the director has committed to develop an adaptation of Don Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine for Paramount. From the article:
De Niro will play Frank Machianno, a mob hitman who has retired to run a bait shop. He agrees to help the son of a mob boss resolve a dispute with another Mafioso but is forced to turn into Frankie Machine again when he realizes he’s been set up to be killed.
De Niro has been attached to Frankie Machine for some time now — in fact, he read the book even before it was published — but it’s been in limbo pending Paramount’s decision regarding Brian Koppelman and David Levien‘s original draft of the script, which, according to Variety, is now being given “a major overhaul” by Alex Tse, “under Mann’s supervision.”
Source: Variety
