A stretch of downtown Cincinnati is being transformed into 1950s New York for a new movie.
"The Wise Guys," a gangster drama starring Robert De Niro, is currently filming Downtown after starting production in the Queen City late last year, Kristen Schlotman, CEO of Film Cincinnati, confirmed to The Enquirer.
A stretch of Eighth Street near Arnold's Bar and Grill was blocked off to cars and pedestrians earlier this week. Film set equipment and vintage cars with New York license plates could be seen nearby.
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Arnold's owner Chris Breeden said on social media that the historic bar is being rented out for a "major motion picture" and will remain closed until Feb. 21. Breeden couldn't confirm what movie was being filmed, but told The Enquirer Arnold's will serve as a stand-in for a New York "hangout."
In October, Cincinnati-based casting director D. Lynn Meyers made a call for film extras on Facebook, "especially anybody who is of Italian descent or who looks like they could be a NY mobster in the 1950s," she wrote.
According to Deadline, "The Wise Guys" follows Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, who ran two separate New York crime families in the 1950s. The film will star De Niro as both Genovese and Costello.
"The Wise Guys" reunites De Niro with director Barry Levinson, following their collaboration on films like "The Wizard of Lies," "What Just Happened," "Wag the Dog" and "Sleepers." De Niro and Levinson stopped by one of Jeff Ruby's Downtown restaurants earlier this month.
