SCORSESE OUT OF 'MACHINE'

Director Michael Mann ("Heat") is developing "Frankie Machine" as a star vehicle for Robert De Niro at Paramount Pictures, reports Variety.

A few months back, we reported it would be with Martin Scorsese. Check it out HERE.

In any case, the film is an adaptation of the Don Winslow novel "The Winter of Frankie Machine." De Niro 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.

Alex Tse has just been set to do a major overhaul of the concept and Brian Koppelman and David Levien's original draft.

We'll keep ya posted.

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DE NIRO & SCORSESE RE-TEAM FOR NEW MOB PIC

The Web is ablaze today with news that Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese will once again re-team for movie magic. The project? An adaptation of Don Winslow's page-turner "The Winter of Frankie Machine."

The Oscar -winning thesp will play a Mafia hit man (how novel) who's given up the trade in order to run a bait shop in San Diego. (Hmmm ...Sounds similar to De Niro's character in "Midnight Run" who wanted to leave the bounty hunting game to open a nice little coffee shop.)

But we digress ... In "The Winter of Frankie Machine," De Niro discovers that he's been targeted for a hit and forced to return to the business.

Under his film deal with Paramount, Scorsese will helm a script from "Ocean's Thirteen" scribes Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

Here's the official plot via Booklist:

Frank Machianno thought he had quit the Mob for good. The 62-year-old Vietnam vet has settled into a quiet life in his native San Diego: operating a bait shack on Ocean Beach Pier, running three other local businesses (all on the up-and-up), and catching a set of waves every chance he gets. But Frank's sharpshooting skills are legendary (he wasn't called "The Machine" for nothing), and when the head of the Los Angeles syndicate calls in a favor, he finds himself back in the game. Turns out Frank was set up, but it's too late to change course; he's already neck-deep in the world of the thick-necked. Winslow, a longtime private investigator, is no stranger to society's underbelly; his past thrillers-- including The Death and Life of Bobby Z (1997) and The Power of the Dog (2005)--vividly evoke the worlds of drugs, dirty politics, and organized crime. Although Winslow visits well-traveled Mafia terrain, his writing has a crisp, cinematic quality that refreshes the subject matter and will appeal to fans of Elmore Leonard (without alienating the Mario Puzo camp). No surprise that film rights have been sold to Robert De Niro; the actor, who earned an Oscar for his performance in The Godfather: Part II, is set to produce and star.

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