The movies are coming in quick & hot in June to HBO and Max. Announced after our monthly “What’s On” posting, we learned that a WB picture of note slipped onto the schedule. Warner Bros. Pictures’ THE ALTO KNIGHTS made its global streaming debut exclusively on Max on FRIDAY, JUNE 06. It then debuted on HBO on SATURDAY, JUNE 07, at 8:00 p.m. ET. It stars Academy Award winner Robert De Niro in a dual role and was directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Levinson. In case you don’t realize it, Mr. De Niro is 81 years old as of this writing, so for a man of his age to take on big-screen time in dual roles shows how fit and sharp this actor still is. Good for him!
The film follows two of New York’s most notorious organized crime bosses, Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (De Niro), as they vie for control of the city’s streets. Once the best of friends, petty jealousies and a series of betrayals place them on a deadly collision course that will reshape the Mafia (and America) forever. It was written by Oscar nominee Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas) and produced by Oscar winner Irwin Winkler Rocky, Goodfellas), Levinson, Jason Sosnoff, Charles Winkler, and David Winkler, with Mike Drake executive producing. Here is the trailer:
Okay, it appears as yet another good crime story filled with all the big Mafia names, but all throughout the writing of this piece, one question has nagged me. Why De Niro in the dual role of Costello & Genovese? No disrespect to the actor, but the characters were not blood-related, so the same actor was not a necessity. Did the team behind this think the piece wasn’t strong enough, so they employed this casting gimmick? I mean, who doesn’t want to see De Niro in this type of movie, but X2? Did De Niro somehow insist? I don’t know if the answers are out there, but if these thoughts are in my mind now, I’m sure they’d be in my mind if I’d actually watched the 123-minute movie.
Okay, it appears as yet another good crime story filled with all the big Mafia names, but all throughout the writing of this piece, one question has nagged me. Why De Niro in the dual role of Costello & Genovese? No disrespect to the actor, but the characters were not blood-related, so the same actor was not a necessity. Did the team behind this think the piece wasn’t strong enough, so they employed this casting gimmick? I mean, who doesn’t want to see De Niro in this type of movie, but X2? Did De Niro somehow insist? I don’t know if the answers are out there, but if these thoughts are in my mind now, I’m sure they’d be in my mind if I’d actually watched the 123-minute movie. Newsweek has a good little piece that sheds light on that very topic.
Robert De Niro said, “We [he and good friend and screenwriter Pileggi] both felt that I should play Costello, but then who would play Vito?” The search for Vito was cut short when producer Irwin Winkler suggested De Niro play both roles. De Niro went on to say, “I said, let me think about that. I wanted to work with everybody again. I’d known them so long and worked so many times with everybody that it was like Old Home Week. I definitely wanted to do it and would’ve done it anyway, but the fact that Irwin brought this up made it more enticing and more of a justification on many levels,” he continues. “I said, yeah, okay, I’ll do it.”
De Niro also mentioned, “The thing that I realized was that I couldn’t just do it with somebody reading lines to me,” he says. “The other mob characters were cast already, so I interviewed a few of them to see who would be the best as the other actor opposite me. There was one actor who played [Joe] Profaci named Joe Bacino. Joe learned the two scenes, and we worked on them until maybe two weeks before we were gonna shoot them. I couldn’t have done it without having another person like him do it.”
But the movie was not a blockbuster, and it wasn’t, it seems, because De Niro’s performances were lacklustre. What hurt it was the tired Mafia tropes that we’ve seen many times before. RT locked in the sentiment like this –
But if you love De Niro, the words of Pileggi, Barry Levison’s style, and the good old world of the gangster, then check out THE ALTO KNIGHTS on HBO and Max.
