Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman to star in 'The Comeback Trail' remake

The 1982 original film followed two down-on-their-luck film producers, Eastman and Kodac, who decide to make a Western film with an old actor in hopes that he will die and they will collect the insurance money
PUBLISHED MAY 11, 2019

Hollywood's biggest icons Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, and Morgan Freeman are set to come together in writer-director George Gallo's action comedy 'The Comeback Trail'. The 'Bad Boys' writer will be directing the action-comedy, which is based on Harry Hurwitz's 1982 film.

The 1982 film followed two down-on-their-luck film producers, E. Eddie Eastman (played by Robert Staats) and Enrico Kodac (played by Chuck McCann), who decide to make a Western film with an old actor in hopes that he will die and they will collect the insurance money.

Robert De Niro speaks onstage during "Full Frontal With Samantha Bee" Not The White House Correspondents Dinner on April 26, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

Taking from the plot of the original 1982 film, 'The Comeback Trail' will see Robert De Niro essay the role of Max Barber who, in debt to Freeman's mob boss, commits insurance fraud by casting a washed-up, suicidal cowboy/movie star Duke Montana (played by Tommy Lee Jones) in a badly written Western with the intention of killing him during the first few days of filming. Duke, however, somehow rises to the occasion, redeeming his past misdeeds and brings Max and the others on the same journey.

Morgan Freeman of the television show "The Story of God" speaks during the National Geographic segment of the 2019 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on February 10, 2019 in Pasadena, California. (Getty Images)

Storyboard Media will launch sales on the project at the Cannes film market next week. Steven Tyler Sahlein, March on Productions' Richard Salvatore, and David Ornston are producers of the film along with Joy Sirott Salvatore and Julie Lott Gallo. The film is financed and executive produced by Empire Media Partners' Juston Calvillo and John DeMarco, Storyboard Media's Philip Kim, Patrick Hibler and Elisabeth Costa de Beauregard, along with Ben Ruedinger and Joerg Fisher.

Tommy Lee Jones attends the red carpet of the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival at Roppongi Hills on October 25, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. (Getty Images)

Josh Posner has co-written the screenplay with Gallo, which is based on the 1982 film of the same name, written, directed and produced by the late Harry Hurwitz. The shooting for the film commences in June in New Mexico.

This isn't the first time that De Niro, Jones and Freeman are working together - De Niro and Jones worked together in 2013's 'The Family', De Niro and Morgan in 'Last Vegas' the same year, and Jones and Freeman in 2017's 'Just Getting Started'. Gallo and De Niro's relationship goes way back to the 1988 buddy cop film 'Midnight Run'. Gallo's most recent film, 'The Poison Rose', starring Freeman and John Travolta, is being released by Lionsgate over Memorial Day weekend.

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