At this point in his career, most people think they've seen everything that Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) has to offer, but new gangster movie Alto Knights is here to prove otherwise. The story features the Oscar winner doubling down and playing two characters — mob bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese — and we'll get to see him play opposite himself on screen. The thriller is set to premiere in theaters on March 21.
The trailer for Alto Knights doesn't beat around the bush and reveals what we're most curious to see: Both De Niros facing each other on screen. In the very first scene, Genovese walks into a restaurant where Costello waits for him at a table. The scene reveals that the duo is close to a crossroads, with Costello trying to signal to Genovese that things are about to get dangerous, while Genovese pushes back. The movie will focus on the different approaches from both mobsters to their life of crime, and what Costello taught Genovese along the way.
As the scene in the trailer suggests, Alto Knights covers the events that led to Genovese ordering a hit on Costello. In the 1950s, both criminals ran separate Italian-American families who ruled the crime underworld. The trailer also makes it clear that one of the clashes between the two gangsters hailed from the way that each of them conducted their public personas, with Costello being well known — he participated in charity events and was featured on the covers of magazines.
Who's the Team Behind 'Alto Knights'?
Aside from De Niro taking on the double lead, the cast of Alto Knights also features Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Kathrine Narducci (Godfather of Harlem), Wallace Langham (CSI), Matt Servito (Billions), and Cosmo Jarvis (Shōgun). The movie is directed by Barry Levinson, who has balanced his career between dense projects like You Don't Know Jack and comedies like What Just Happened. Sometimes he mixed both, like he did in the cinema classic Good Morning Vietnam. The screenplay of Alto Knights is written by Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas).
The positioning of Alto Knights' release is a little weird. The subject and the fact that De Niro plays two characters would be enough to make the movie a serious contender during the awards season, and Levinson hasn't done a high-profile movie in a while. Releasing a movie this early in the year practically guarantees that voters won't remember it, unless it's such a powerful feature that people talk about it for years. However, we can’t ignore that the movie suffered a title change and reports from test screenings suggest that the movie will receive mixed reviews, but we'll have to wait a couple of months to find out exactly what divided viewers.
Alto Knights premieres in theaters on March 21. Robert De Niro's previous gangster movie, The Irishman is streaming now on Netflix.
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Release Date November 27, 2019
Runtime 210 minutes
Writers Steven Zaillian