Robert De Niro takes on dual roles in his latest crime drama.
On Tuesday, Jan. 14, Warner Bros. Pictures debuted the first trailer for The Alto Knights, in which two-time Oscar-winner De Niro, 81, portrays gangsters Vito Genovese and Frank Costello.
The movie follows the two notorious New York organized crime bosses as they “vie for control of the city’s streets,” a synopsis teases. “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.”
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As The National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement wrote in a 2022 article concerning the movie’s development, mobsters Genovese and Costello worked for the Luciano crime family. Genovese developed a grudge against Costello after Genovese fled to Italy in the late 1930s, leaving Costello to take over the Luciano family’s operations. Genovese eventually returned to the U.S. after World War II and ordered Costello’s death in May 1957, but the attack failed to kill Costello.
According to the museum, Genovese was convicted for heroin trafficking in 1959 and died in a Missouri prison at age 71 in 1969. Costello, meanwhile, died at 82 in 1973.
De Niro teamed up with Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) for the new movie, which is written by Goodfellas and Casino screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi. De Niro is celebrated for his work as mob-affiliated characters in those two movies, as well as in films like The Godfather Part II, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon, among others.
The new movie marks Levinson’s first as a director since 2021’s The Survivor. The cast also features Cosmo Jarvis, Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci.
The Alto Knights is in theaters March 21.
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