Film great turns beady eye on Hollywood

Robert De Niro (left) teams up with director Barry Levinson for another comedy, What Just Happened? Photo / Supplied

Robert De Niro is impressive when he stands before the opening night crowd at the Tribeca Film Festival, the annual downtown New York event he co-founded with his producing partner, Jane Rosenthal. If you believe Matt Damon, he was also impressive while making The Good Shepherd, his second directing effort, where he knew too well the support his actors needed. Likewise, he is full of beans when travelling the world to promote his classy Nobu chain of restaurants.

So why does he find it difficult to talk up his movies?

Of late, you get the impression that De Niro's other pursuits have captured his focus - behind the camera, rather than in front of it. He produces movies via his Tribeca Film production company, and, one imagines, eats very well.

Who can blame him? At 66, and one of cinema's greatest actors, he's been there, done that. He has two Oscars in the bag (for Raging Bull and The Godfather Part II) from a period long gone, a time when more interesting films were being made and audiences would pay to see them.

So what acting is there left to do? He's re-teaming with the cast of Meet the Fockers for a sequel, Little Fockers. He's also teamed up with his buddies, director-producer Barry Levinson (Rain Man and Good Morning, Vietnam) and producer Art Linson (Fight Club, The Untouchables) for a satire on Hollywood. Based on Linson's 2002 book, What Just Happened?, it charts the trials and tribulations of producing pictures in Tinseltown.

It's perhaps appropriate that De Niro should work on another comedy with Levinson, as the director's 1997 movie, Wag The Dog, alerted Hollywood to De Niro's funny bone. Since then, he has had huge success sending up his tough guy image in Analyse This, Analyse That, Meet The Parents, Meet The Fockers, and was clearly having a ball as a cross-dressing pirate in Stardust.

"I did comedic movies before Wag the Dog, like The King of Comedy," De Niro protests, referring to Martin Scorsese's poignant drama, co-starring Jerry Lewis.

"And there have always been comic elements to some of my movies. There were certain funny things in Taxi Driver, even Mean Streets. I've just done a dramatic role in Everybody's Fine, and there are also funny elements in that. It's a remake of a Giuseppe Tornatore movie that Marcello Mastroianni was in. It's a magical thing about a retired father, who decides to spring a visit on his kids [Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell]."

In What Just Happened?, De Niro is a Hollywood producer with a couple of movies in trouble. Rarely with a clear moment to think straight, he is constantly haggling with studio boss Catherine Keener, agent John Turturro, ex-wife Robin Wright Penn and temperamental stars including Bruce Willis, who plays himself with a rabbi-style beard, and Sean Penn, who sports a moustache.

Willis' character hilariously sends up every troublesome actor who ever existed, as he insists on keeping his beard for his starring role, which is placing the financing of De Niro's big budget commercial project in jeopardy.

"I wouldn't tolerate that, that's not open to discussion," De Niro says bluntly. "The director, he's the boss, you work together and he makes the ultimate decision about that, not the studio. The problem is that the director in our movie is weak. You have to know how to fight back. Clearly the movie is going to be a disaster."

Back in real life, De Niro produces What Just Happened? "There are many ways to view it. For some people this would be just a charming, sweet comedy, while for others it looks pretty grim. The intention was for all the characters to be viewed in a comedic way, and for audiences to get to see what it feels like to be in Hollywood."

Certainly, De Niro was up for anything in the film. Not only does he allow his character to show his human failings, he gets down to his underwear for the role.

"Bob is uninhibited," says Levinson. "He's like: 'This is who I am.' ... Often actors baulk at that kind of thing, but Bob's completely committed."

Meanwhile, De Niro is planning a sequel to The Good Shepherd.

"I hope to get it out there in the next four years," he says. "I don't expect to direct more than five movies in my life. If I'm lucky that will be the third."

He says he has been "fortunate pretty much" in his career.

However, most of his success stems from his work with Martin Scorsese, and they have another film in the works, based on a screenplay by Good Shepherd and Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth.

"It's never over until you stop acting," De Niro says of his future. "I'd love to work with Marty again."

LOWDOWN

Who: Robert De Niro
What: What Just Happened?
When: Opens Thursday