Whacked! Double De Niro roles an offer audiences can refuse

Robert De Niro just got whacked. Twice.

The Trump derangement victim does double duty in the new mob drama “The Alto Knights.” The actor plays both Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, real-life gangsters whose childhood friendship morphed into a bitter rivalry.

Of course, Disney didn’t fire Zegler like it did Gina Carano. 'The Mandalorian' star’s crime? She was right of center.

Why cast De Niro twice? Who knows? Audiences didn’t bother to ask, ignoring the film during its opening weekend. The $45 million film made just $3.4 million, plus a tiny $1.9 million outside the U.S.

That’s moviegoers sending a message without injuring a single horse. We’re not interested in seeing De Niro on the big screen once, let alone twice ...

Clooney dumps rom-coms

No more “meet cutes” for George Clooney.

The actor, busy lecturing the country on what real journalism looks like, says he’s no longer interested in starring in romantic movies.

Why?

He’s 63, and rom-coms are a young man’s game.

“I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. ... That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”

Clooney hardly looks his age, and his 2022 rom-com “Ticket to Paradise” made some cash ($68 million U.S.). It also offered adults over 30 a sweet, credible romance to call their own.

That’s refreshing in youth-obsessed Hollywood.

Still, anytime an Oscar-winner shows some self-awareness must be applauded. Now, if he can apologize for hiding President Joe Biden’s dementia-addled state last year until the leader’s poll numbers sank ...

'Impossible' math

The term “Hollywood accounting” is already a thing. Now, it’s hitting absurdist levels.

Take “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” The film, the second of the two-part “M:I” cliffhanger opening this May, is already a box-office bust.

You don’t need a crystal ball to see that.

The film sports a $400 million budget, meaning it will need to make roughly double that, or more, to break even.

The previous installment earned $571 million in total, a disappointing tally. Plus, no “M:I” movie has made more than $791 million globally (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout” hit that peak and deservedly so).

Hollywood is already having a terrible year at the box office to date, and that was before “Snow White” crashed and burned last weekend. “Final Reckoning” is meant to jump-start the summer movie season.

New 'Mummy,' same curse?

It still might but not enough to make its studio happy ...

Speaking of Cruise, his 2017 film “The Mummy” was a rarity in his film canon. It stunk, underperformed at the box office, and helped stall a proposed “universe” of Universal Monsters movies.

So of course, Hollywood is rebooting the classic movie monster.

A new “Mummy” is heading our way soon, this time co-starring the lesser-known Jack Reynor. To be fair, Reynor shined in the sublime ‘80s yarn “Sing Street” — if you grew up in the Reagan era, it’s a must-see.

He’s still no Tom Cruise.

Everything old in Hollywood is new again, even if it’s wrapped in dusty, decaying bandages ...

Disney bashes 'Snow White' star

Hope it’s comfortable under that bus, Snow White.

Rachel Zegler made life hell for Team Disney in the run-up to the live-action “Snow White” update. The young star trashed the source material during a red carpet interview, calling the prince a “stalker” and saying the story was “weird.”

Later, she wished Trump voters would “never know peace.” She apologized for the latter, but by then, it was too late.

Way too late.

Now, Disney is leaking bad tidings about Zegler to camouflage the box-office misfortunes of "Snow White."

“She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone,” says one insider to Variety magazine. The piece details how Zegler kept sharing controversial views, like “Free Palestine,” while the Mouse House brass cringed.

Of course, Disney didn’t fire Zegler like it did Gina Carano. "The Mandalorian” star’s crime? She was right of center. Zegler did far more damage to the Disney brand, but she stayed on the project.

Hmmm.

Now, Disney is telling the world Zegler deserves the blame for the film’s dismal showing. There’s some truth to that, no doubt, but Disney did itself few favors by refusing to hire little people for the film and, later, backtracking somewhat by adding CGI dwarfs to the feature.

The screenplay also turned our heroine into a girlboss. That’s on Disney, not Zegler.

Either way, when you’re a 23-year-old star and the biggest studio in Hollywood is trashing you, consider your work prospects bleak moving forward.

“Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go?” Maybe not for Zegler.