"Next Time we'll make One we'll be really proud of”. Robert De Niro still regrets this Thriller with Al Pacino
Thirteen years after Heat’s premiere, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino met on the film set again. Unfortunately, their next collaboration was not successful as Michael Mann's movie.
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are living legends and Hollywood's biggest stars. Although both actors appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II, it was Michael Mann's Heat that first allowed them to act together.
Thirteen years later, the stars met again on set for Jon Avnet's Righteous Kill. Unfortunately, the film was not well-received by critics (with only 18% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and 37% audience approval), as much as the actors would have hoped, and Robert De Niro seemed to regret participating in this project.
In a 2019 interview with Variety, the actor admitted that he agreed with the low critical ratings. Robert De Niro recalled the film's premiere in Rome and what he said to Al Pacino about the gathered fans and the movie they had to see.
I said, “This is a great reaction, but it would be nice if they were here for a movie that we really feel proud about. Next time we’ll do one we like”.
As fans may know, Robert De Niro managed to keep his promise. After 11 years, the actors appeared together in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, which was well-received by both audience and critics and earned ten Oscar nominations.
Righteous Kill tells the story of two detectives from New York City approaching retirement. The policemen investigate a murder that seems to be connected to a case they solved years earlier. As their investigation progresses, the question arises whether the right person was convicted for the previous murders.
