"The Godfather II" star Robert De Niro is booking another flight to Italy.
The Academy Award winner is in final negotiations to join the cast of "Manual of Love 3," the latest entry in Giovanni Veronesi's Italian romance trilogy, De Niro's publicist has confirmed to TheWrap.
De Niro will play a divorced American professor (Deal Central loves this idea) living in Rome in one of the four "chapters" that compose the second sequel. The role calls for De Niro to speak some of his dialogue in Italian — which immediately brings to mind his Oscar-winning performance as Vito Corleone in the superior sequel to Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather."
"Manual of Love 3" will be the first foreign-language film De Niro has acted in since Bernardo Bertolucci's "1900" in 1976.
Aurelio De Laurentiis returns to produce, and Cinecitta Studios will begin production on the project on Sept. 24 in Rome.
The first two "Manual of Love" movies grossed more than $45 million combined at the Italian box office.
De Niro recently wrapped the thriller "Dark Fields" with Bradley Cooper and the Jason Statham-Clive Owen action movie "Killer Elite." He'll next be seen in Robert Rodriguez's "Machete," and will soon reprise his role as retired CIA agent Jack Byrnes in Universal's upcoming "Little Fockers." Additionally, De Niro has re-teamed with his "The Score" co-star Edward Norton for the drama "Stone," which will debut next month at the Toronto Film Festival.
De Niro is represented by CAA.
