Robert De Niro’s new film The Alto Knights is based on a real-life rivalry between two of America’s most notorious gangsters, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. The Alto Knights is directed by Barry Levinson, the Academy Award-winning director of Rain Man (1988), The Natural (1984), Sleepers (1996), and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). Levinson and De Niro last teamed up for the 2017 HBO original film The Wizard of Lies in which De Niro portrayed white-collar criminal Bernie Madoff.

The Alto Knights is set to be released on March 21, 2025. De Niro will play not one, but two, different Italian mob bosses in the film who are based on real-life mafia rivals, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Jack Nicholson previously portrayed Frank Costello in Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning film The Departed (2006), but drew inspiration from Joseph “Whitey” Bulger Jr., the infamous Irish mob boss out of Boston. De Niro will be joined by Cosmo Jarvis, whose breakout role as John Blackthorne in Shōgun has made him one of Hollywood’s most sought-after rising actors.

The Alto Knights Is Based On A Real Feud Between Frank Costello & Vito Genovese

The story of Costello and Genovese goes back decades

The real-life Frank Costello was an Italian American crime lord of the Luciano family who lived and operated in New York City. He retired in 1957 after surviving an ᴀssᴀssination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese, who would eventually become his successor. The story of Costello and Genovese goes back decades. In fact, they worked side-by-side as ᴀssociates of Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, the Sicilian leader of Manhattan’s Lower East Side gang, as far back as 1920. In 1931, “Lucky” became the head of the Luciano crime family with Genovese as his underboss and Costello as his consigliere.

During the 1930s, Costello made a name for himself selling slot machines before Luciano was convicted of running a prosтιтution ring in 1936. After Luciano was sentenced to 30–50 years in prison, Genovese emerged as the new head of the Luciano crime family. Genovese fled to Italy in 1937 to avoid a murder charge, which left Luciano to appoint Costello as the new head of his mob. Genovese didn’t return to the United States until 1945, asking Luciano to reinstate him as the mob boss. Luciano refused and kept Costello in charge, which eventually led to Genovese’s ᴀssᴀssination attempt on Costello in 1957.

How The Real Feud Between Costello & Genovese Ended

Both faced prison time and died from heart attacks

During the 1950s into the early 1960s, both Costello and Genovese faced multiple run-ins with law enforcement. Costello was incarcerated as many as six times from 1952 to 1961, while Genovese was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in 1959 for selling large quanтιтies of heroin. After attempts to strip Costello of his U.S. citizenship during the 1960s, he eventually retired but still maintained his influence within the New York mafia until his death from a heart attack in February 1973. Genovese also died of a heart attack in February 1969. Their historic feud will surely be the heart of The Alto Knights.