Robert De Niro in talks to front new Paramount+ crime series

Robert De Niro is reportedly in negotiations to star in and executive produce new Paramount+ crime drama Bobby Meritorious.

According to Deadline, the 79-year-old acting legend will be playing Avery ‘The Sage’ Accomando in writer Billy Ray’s new project.

Set in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Accomando is planning to tear the institution apart as he works as an informant in the office’s biggest case. Only an ex-cop-turned-prosecutor known as Bobby Meritorious has any hope of stopping him.

Ray, who received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nod for 2013’s Captain Phillips, will also serve as an executive producer alongside De Niro’s Tribeca Productions. The project is being developed for Paramount+.

It will serve as the actor’s second small screen project; in March, Netflix announced the double Oscar winner will feature in the six-part conspiracy thriller Zero Day.