Cosmo Jarvis, the Brit actor best known for roles in features including Lady Macbeth, Calm With Horses and the upcoming FX original Shogun, has joined the cast of Wise Guys, the upcoming mobster drama from Barry Levinson and starring Robert De Niro.
The Warner Bros. film, first reported by The Hollywood Reporter and now shooting, sees De Niro in the dual roles of Italian American crime bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, who ran their respective families during the 20th century. In 1957, Genovese tried — and failed — to assassinate Costello, who was ultimately injured and attempted to retire from the mafia. De Niro reunites with Levinson after working on several projects together, most notably Wag the Dog and Sleeper.
Nicholas Pileggi — who authored Wiseguy, the 1985 book that was the basis for the 1990 De Niro-Martin Scorsese crime classic, Goodfellas — wrote the script. Irwin Winkler, best known for producing the Rocky movies as well as being a producer on Goodfellas, is a producer.
Jarvis, who was nominated at the British Independent Film Awards for both Lady Macbeth and Calm With Horses, is set to take the lead in FX’s Shogun, playing John Blackthorne, based on 17th century English sailor William Adams, who was the first Englishman to visit Japan. The actor is repped by The Artists Partnership in the U.K. and UTA, David Krintzman and Cary Dobkin in the U.S.