The Alto Knights sees Robert De Niro returning to familiar territory, playing two rival mob bosses at the same time with the help of prosthetic makeup and CGI. De Niro’s new movie also involves collaborators from some of his most acclaimed and best-loved works, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman. It’s only natural to ᴀssume, then, that the director who ties all these movies together, Martin Scorsese, is behind The Alto Knights, too. Yet, Scorsese has nothing to do with De Niro’s latest project.

While the director was busy working on his 2023 anti-Western epic Killers of the Flower Moon, and developing his upcoming movie Devil in the White City with Leonardo DiCaprio, his lifelong collaborator De Niro was shooting a mob picture that ventures into classic Scorsese territory. But the director of The Alto Knights is instead Barry Levinson, the filmmaker behind Rain Man, and De Niro’s 1997 forgotten gem of a movie Wag the Dog. Scorsese’s absence from the project seems all the more shocking in light of the screenwriter who came up with it, and the producer who got it greenlit.

Two Of Martin Scorsese’s Biggest Collaborators Are Behind The Alto Knights

Screenwriter Nicolas Pileggi And Producer Irwin Winkler Are Longtime Scorsese ᴀssociates

The Alto Knights is the pᴀssion project of screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, who began working on its script in the early 1970s (via Collider). Pileggi is best known for writing two of Martin Scorsese’s best gangster movies, Goodfellas and Casino, alongside the director. After 50 years of trying to get his script made into a movie, it’s safe to ᴀssume that Pileggi would have at least suggested that Scorsese direct The Alto Knights. What’s more, the movie’s lead producer, Irwin Winkler, should have been the first to support Pileggi’s suggestion.

Winkler was the driving force behind the production of several Martin Scorsese films, including some of the director’s very best. The two first worked together on New York, New York in the mid-1970s, before Winkler went on to produce Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Irishman. As if these two longtime Scorsese collaborators weren’t enough, in addition to De Niro, The Alto Knights has another of the director’s previous cast members playing one of its characters. Sopranos actor Kathrine Narducci portrays mafia don Vito Genovese’s wife, Anna, following her performance as Carrie Bufalino in Scorsese’s The Irishman.

The Alto Knights’ Story Is Connected To Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman & The Departed

The Genovese Family And Frank Costello Also Feature In These Works

It’s only fitting that Narducci should play a Genovese Family member in The Alto Knights, given that her previous character Carrie Bufalino was part of a mob family that was controlled by the Genoveses. In fact, the people who ultimately give the orders for Jimmy Hoffa to be killed in The Irishman are part of the Genovese hierarchy. Hoffa makes enemies in the mob by falling out with Genovese caporegime Tony Pro, played by Stephen Graham, and his fate is ultimately sealed on the orders of Fat Tony Salerno, who went on to become underboss of the entire Genovese Family.

The Alto Knights is a Robert De Niro true-crime movie which is part of the same bigger picture of New York’s 20th century mafia underworld. One of the two characters that De Niro plays is Vito Genovese, the original don of the Genovese family, whose rule predated Jimmy Hoffa’s murder by several years. De Niro’s other character also has links to a Martin Scorsese movie; the director’s 2006 Oscar-winning crime epic The Departed. As well as Vito Genovese, the actor plays Frank Costello, the mafia boss who took over the Luciano crime family from Charles “Lucky” Luciano in 1937.

Frank Costello is the name given to the villainous Irish-American mobster who terrorizes Boston in The Departed, played by Jack Nicholson. Although this character is primarily inspired by a different real-life mob boss, Boston’s James “Whitey” Bulger, whose name couldn’t be used in the movie for legal reasons as he was still alive at the time, elements of the real Frank Costello are woven into Nicholson’s Departed role alongside elements of Whitey Bulgur.

Martin Scorsese Was Never Meant To Direct The Alto Knights

Warner Bros. Signed Barry Levinson On As Director From The Start

Despite all the things stacking up in favor of Martin Scorsese directing The Alto Knights, however, the reality is that the director was never in line to helm the project. It’s unclear whether Scorsese was even asked to direct the movie, once Pileggi’s script was finally bought by Warner Bros. in 2022. Ironically, Scorsese hasn’t worked with Warner Bros. on any movie since The Departed, with all of his subsequent feature films distributed by one of the studio’s biggest rivals, Paramount Pictures (barring The Irishman, which was distributed both in theaters and on streaming by Netflix).

It could be that Warner Bros. simply refused to hire Scorsese for the project, or that he didn’t want to direct any project on the initiative of a major studio, given that he typically develops his own projects. Alternatively, the reasons for Scorsese not directing The Alto Knights could be more mundane, related to scheduling conflicts between the movie’s production plan and Scorsese’s other recent work.

In any case, Warner Bros. decided to put Barry Levinson, whose résumé includes the 1991 mafia biopic Bugsy, in the director’s chair. Levinson is the only director who’s ever been publicly discussed in relation to The Alto Knights, and the project has been in his hands from the moment the studio started work on pre-production.

The Alto Knights Still Feels Like A Martin Scorsese Movie, Even If He Didn’t Direct It

Visually, Thematically And In Narrative Terms, The Movie Screams Scorsese

Nevertheless, it’s clear that Levinson, De Niro and others involved in making The Alto Knights have taken many of their cues from Martin Scorsese. The visual aspects of the movie feel thoroughly Scorsesian, from the Irishman-style prosthetics and voice-altering technology used on De Niro, to the mid-century set designs, and even the coloring. Even more importantly, the story and the way it’s told, with swagger and unapologetic violence, in anticipation of a final coup de grâce, bear all the hallmarks of classic Scorsese mobster movies.

If Scorsese’s name were on The Alto Knights, it might not be up there with his very best work. But it would fit neatly into a stellar selection of the director’s movies that have redefined the crime genre on the big screen. Barry Levinson isn’t Martin Scorsese, and has an enviable body of work of his own. But if he wants to emulate New York foremost mob-movie director, The Alto Knights is the closest he’ll ever come.

Source: Collider