About a week ago, I was at the library and picked up a mystery called The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow. My main reason for doing so is that the character lives in San Diego (like me) and it has something to do with the mob. Now, Variety is saying that Robert De Niro and Michael Mann were probably at my library looking for that same book (it’s on my nightstand, fellas.) They will be teaming up to bring Frankie Machine to the big screen.

The book tells the story of a retired mob hitman, Frank Machianno, who runs a bait shop on the Ocean Beach Pier and is a well respected member of the community. He’s sucked back into the life (aren’t they all) by the son of the local mob boss, resulting in a double cross. They don’t call this guy Frankie Machine for nothing, though, and he gets on the trail of the bad guys; the bad guys who aren’t ex-mafia hit men, that is.

De Niro has owned the rights to the book since it was released and will both produce and star. Michael Mann, who directed De Niro in the excellent Heat in 2005, will do his usual fantastic job. Early money had Martin Scorcsese set to direct this, but that was either wishful thinking or old news. A script has already been written by Ocean’s 13 writers David Levien and Barry Koppelman. No other cast is set. If anyone wants to read this, I’ll have it back to the library in a week or so.