Barry Levinson
Robert De Niro Will Try to Kill Robert De Niro in Wise Guys
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 nominat...
Oscar Isaac to Star as Francis Ford Coppola in Francis and the Godfather
Oscar Isaac will star as Francis Ford Coppola in Francis and the Godfather, a new feature film about the making of — you guessed it — The Godfather. Via The Hollywood Reporter, Barry Levinson will direct and Jake Gyllenhaal will play legendary Paramount head Robert Evans. The Godfather had a famously troubled production history. Evans picked up the rights to Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather for a pittance after learning that Puzo was up to his eyeballs in gambling debt. As he explained in his autobiography The Kid Stays in the Picture, he then offered the director’s chair to half of Hollywood before landing on Coppola. Personally, Coppola didn’t want anything to do with the “sleazy” story, but wouldn’t you know it, he was also deeply in debt. Things didn’t impr...
