Back in the more innocent days of 2014, there were few projects more eagerly anticipated by the cinema cognoscenti than Idol’s Eye, a thriller starring Robert De Niro and Robert Pattinson that was set to be the American debut of the great French writer-director Olivier Assayas. Set in Chicago in the 1970s, the project was based on a real incident in which a crew of professional thieves robbed the suburban home of Tony Accardo (a.k.a. “Big Tuna” and “Joe Batters”), then the head of the Chicago Outfit, and were subsequently hunted by the mob. Just weeks before it was due to start filming, the project fell apart due to financing problems. Assayas, then coming off Clouds Of Sils Maria, did not take it well.
But Screen Daily reports that the project has been resurrected, with Sylvester Stallone replacing De Niro as Accardo. Pattinson is still signed on to play “a petty thief who unknowingly steals a blue diamond from Accardo,” with Rachel Weisz co-starring in an as-of-yet-unspecified role. While Idol’s Eye was originally slated to shoot at least partly in Chicago, Screen Daily reports that the project is now set to begin production in Toronto in February.