De Niro To Portray Mobster
Director Michael Mann has done a deal with with Paramount Pictures to develop “Frankie Machine” as a star vehicle for Robert De Niro. The drama is an adaptation of the Don Winslow novel “The Winter of Frankie Machine.” De Niro, who has avoided playing gangster types lately, will play Frank Machianno, a mob hitman who has retired to run a bait shop. He agrees to help the son of a mob boss resolve a dispute with another Mafioso but is forced to turn into Frankie Machine again when he realizes he’s been set up to be killed.
De Niro and Mann previously teamed for 1995’s “Heat.”
