I have never been quiet about my thoughts on Robert De Niro and the shitty decisions he has made over the last several years with films like Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Analyze This and Analyze That. Hell, you can even throw in the shit piles that were Godsend, Hide and Seek and the only movie I have walked out of since L.A. Story in 1991, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Did some of those movies make money? Hell yeah! However, that doesn’t mean De Niro’s decision to do them didn’t tarnish him in my eyes.
Now, with a sparkling new version of Taxi Driver coming out that gets me amped for more Bobby D, but the news Deadline Hollywood is carrying one ups it as we learn that De Niro will be reuniting with Martin Scorsese for a feature film adaptation of “The Winter of Frankie Machine” by Don Winslow.
The story is about a mob hitman who gave up the game for a quiet life as the proprietor of a bait shop. When the son of a mob boss asks for his backup to help resolve a dispute with another Mafioso, he agrees, only to find he’s been set up for a hit.
This isn’t the first time we have heard of this project, it is the first time we have heard Scorsese attached to it though. Back in September of 2006 Variety reported that Brian Koppleman and David Levien, the two scribes that penned Ocean’s Thirteen, would be adapting the novel and De Niro was attached to star. However, that was the last we heard of it until now.
I can only hope this works out, because as Nikki at Deadline Hollywood mentioned, De Niro said he wants to do two more movies with Marty to make it an even ten. Frankie Machine would be #9.
