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There used to be a time when established film actors stayed a country-mile away from the silver screen’s red-headed stepchild known as television. TV was seen by the gatekeepers of Hollywood movies strictly as the venue for either up and coming talent (James Dean made his initial impact on live television and no less of an acting legend as Morgan Freeman spent many-a year delighting kids young and old on Sesame Street before graduating to cinema) or those actors that were considered solid stock as far as the small screen goes. As time marched on, cracks started to show on that fast-and-loose rule as more and more denizens of the boob tube made successful migrations to the loftier heights of entertainment: Ted Danson made everyone do a double-take with a winning bit in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (ditto Dennis Farina of Crime Story fame), as did George Clooney who ditched E.R. hospital scrubs for such crowd-pleasers as Out of Sight and Three Kings. Suddenly the so-called rules didn’t seem to apply quite as much as they once did and we began to see an equal back-and-forth with certified movie stars popping up on our home screens. Kate Winslet wowed audiences with her turn in the series Mare of Easttown; Julia Roberts revealed even more nuance to her craft with a jaw-dropping turn in Homecoming. It was in effect the great democratization of the big and the small screen, perfectly on display with acclaimed phenoms from the likes of Kevin Costner (Yellowstone) and Harrison Ford ( Shrinking, 1923) joining in on all of the fun. Now, according to our pals over at The Hollywood Reporter, one of the biggest names ever in the world of movies is about to join other recent TV converts such as Sylvester Stallone for his own time on our respective plasma television sets.
Oscar-winner Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, The Godfather Part II, Awakenings) has been announced as being the star in the forthcoming Paramount+ series entitled Bobby Meritorious. In addition to shining his always-bright star on the new series, Mr. De Niro will also serve as one of the executive producers on the new drama series. Here’s what we know so far about the specifics of the new show…
Bobby Meritorious springs forth from the fertile imagination of wordsmith Billy Ray (of Captain Phillips fame) and is about an informant for the U.S. Attorney’s office – played by De Niro – who is set to dismantle the very institution for which he is a part of. Enter ex-police officer Bobby Meritorious who now works as a prosecutor and is the only person that can seemingly stop the disgruntled informant.
This new series actually marks De Niro’s sophomore turn in the wonky land of TV: The Goodfellas alum is also turning heads with his work on the Netflix mini-series Zero Day, a six-part thriller of the highest order.
No official word on a production start date on Bobby Meritorious, let alone an official premiere date. We’ll keep all of you cinema-to-television fans up-to-date on any and all information on this intriguing-sounding production as it becomes known to us!
