Hollywood’s got a casting coup

IF Bollywood can get veterans Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher to act together after 12 years, then Hollywood has Academy Award winners, Robert de Niro and Al Pacino, together 13 years after they last acted together in Michael Mann’s critically acclaimed Heat of 1995. Before that, the two legends were brought together on screen the first time for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather II in 1974. Now you may look forward to de Niro and Pacino sharing screen space in a Jon Avnet film, Righteous Kill.

Al and Bob, as they are known in Hollywood, find themselves on the same side of the law — the right side — as they play detectives and long-time partners of the NYPD in a cop thriller. Individually, they have played cops, criminals, murderers, fathers — but never together. The writer of the film, Russell Gewirtz, said, “As the script made its way to Jon Avnet and then to de Niro, that’s when I knew we had a movie. When Pacino was on board, I knew we had an event.”

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro shares words of wisdom

Robert De Niro says difficult actors should leave their ‘craziness’ at home. The screen legend — who has a reputation for being a perfectionist — insists problems should not be brought to the set and actors should be fully focused when they are at work. He said, “You can have integrity, but that doesn’t mean you are difficult. There is a difference. I don’t like it when any actor or even a crew member, brings their own craziness to the set. When you make a movie, everyone should leave their own personal problems at home. When they start bringing those to set, filming can be very difficult. You don’t need any extra drama. Put the drama into the story, in the characters.” De Niro, 64, also revealed how he based much of the character he plays in new movie What Just Happened? on his own life.

The actor — who plays fading Hollywood producer Ben who is trying to get his new movie made while going through his second divorce in the film — added, “There are characteristics that are very similar. It’s not me, but there are many things that are the same. If there are things I take from my own life, it’s because I feel that they are useful to the character I’m playing. I do that with every character I play.”