In 1980, he won the Oscar® as Best Actor for his extraordinary portrayal of boxer Jake La Motta in Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” Thirty-four years later, Robert De Niro puts on the boxing gloves again for Warner Bros. Pictures’ new comedy, “Grudge Match.”

In the film, Billy “The Kid” McDonnen (De Niro) and Henry “Razor” Sharp (Sylvester Stallone) are two local Pittsburgh fighters whose fierce rivalry put them in the national spotlight. Each had scored a victory against the other during their heyday, but in 1983, on the eve of their decisive third match, Razor suddenly announced his retirement, refusing to explain why but effectively delivering a knock-out punch to both their careers. Thirty years later, a boxing promoter seeing big dollar signs, makes them an offer they can’t refuse: to re-enter the ring and settle the score once and for all.

“Often when you make a movie, there are many actors that would be great in a part,” says producer Michael Ewing. “In this case, it had to be Sylvester Stallone and it had to be Robert De Niro, or the movie was just not going to happen.”

Producer Mark Steven Johnson, a longtime friend of screenwriter Tim Kelleher’s who had talked about the idea with the writer previously, was working on another film with De Niro and mentioned the premise to him. “He thought it sounded really funny and he wanted to read it. I knew [director] Peter Segal wanted to make a sports comedy that also had real drama, about how you’re never too old to do the things you were passionate about when you were young.”

De Niro honed in on the idea of second chances, but, he says, “It’s not a second chance for a guy who’s down and out trying to make a comeback. It’s really about getting what he’s always wanted, what he’s waited years for. But along the way he sees there’s a lot more to it than he was even aware of.”

While Razor wishes the renewed interest in what happened three decades ago would just go away, “The Kid” relishes the new-found attention. The spotlight-loving Kid continued to box after the cancelled bout with Razor, but after 11 fights, his career sputtered out. He parlayed his celebrity into being a moderately successful pitchman for everything from Jockey® to jock itch. He invested his money in some local Pittsburgh businesses and continued to obsess about “the fight that never happened and never will.”

De Niro states, “These two guys are in really different places in life. My character’s done alright for himself, financially, but he still has this unfulfilled yearning to have this final fight, because he felt that he was kind of gypped the last time when Razor pulled out of it. Razor’s the one that needs it, for the money, but Kid’s the one that really wants it.”

“I think Kid really sees this as the moment of truth,” De Niro concludes.

Opening across the Philippines in Jan. 15, 2014, “Grudge Match” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Joining movie legends Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro in Warner Bros.’ new comedy “Grudge Match” are three character actors who are at the peak of their game. They are Oscar-winner Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “Argo”), Kevin Hart (“Little Fockers”) and Jon Bernthal (TV’s “The Walking Dead”).

That was just the beginning of what producer Bill Gerber calls “a fantastic cast.” He says, “The great thing about this movie is we got every first choice that we went after for each role.”

In “Grudge Match,” De Niro and Stallone play Billy “The Kid” McDonnen and Henry “Razor” Sharp, two local Pittsburgh fighters whose fierce rivalry put them in the national spotlight. Each had scored a victory against the other during their heyday, but in 1983, on the eve of their decisive third match, Razor suddenly announced his retirement, refusing to explain why but effectively delivering a knock-out punch to both their careers. Thirty years later, boxing promoter Dante Slate, Jr., seeing big dollar signs, makes them an offer they can’t refuse: to re-enter the ring and settle the score once and for all.

Kevin Hart: It is Hart’s character, Dante Slate, Jr., who is the catalyst that sets the story into motion. Hart was perfect for the role of the fast-talking son of the flamboyant, late boxing promoter Dante Slate, Sr. Dante Jr. didn’t inherit any money from his father, but he did inherit his famous name—and hustler instincts.

Kevin Hart says, “What made me say yes to the opportunity to work with these legends? It was a no brainer: Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger. Look at the company I’m in. And I’m watching ‘Rocky’ fight ‘Raging Bull.’ What movie fan, what boxing fan, what actor is not going to want to see that, or be part of it?”

Alan Arkin: Director Segal says Razor’s relationship with his longtime friend and former boxing trainer, Louis “Lightning” Conlon, played by Arkin, was adjusted to nurture the father-son elements. The director, who had worked with Arkin on the 2008 film “Get Smart,” reached out to the actor to see if he would be interested in the role.

Surprisingly, during his 50 years as an actor, Arkin had never met nor worked with either De Niro or Stallone before. “It’s always a surprise. Every time I think I know somebody from looking at their work twenty times, I end up having my mouth down to my knees. I had no idea what to expect, working with icons like Sly and Bob.”

The veteran actor was duly impressed. “I’ve never seen anybody work so hard in my life,” says Arkin about Stallone. “He’s 150 years old,” he jokes, “and he doesn’t stop! He just doesn’t stop.”

Stallone loved working with Arkin, whose stories and jokes kept him laughing on set and off. “Alan Arkin can be hysterical with just a look, but when he talks he’s even funnier,” says Stallone. “He’s such a talented, intelligent, interesting guy. I wish we could record what we talked about away from camera. I get his humor, he gets mine and we’re just shameless. We have fun. If you got nothin’ nice to say about anybody, sit next to us.”

Jon Bernthal: As Kid struggles with his diet and workout routine, he quickly finds no one at the Killshot Gym believes in him. No one is really helping Kid, until a young man comes in and starts offering some advice. When he introduces himself, he tells him, “I’m your son.”

Actor Jon Bernthal reveals that at first, the filmmakers “weren’t exactly sure about what they wanted from BJ. Did his estrangement from his father mean that he couldn’t be like him? I thought it would be interesting to put energy into having BJ be the same kind of a guy as Kid, with the same sense of humor and aggression, and the same way of handling himself. But the fundamental difference between these characters is that, where Kid had a son and bailed, BJ sticks around and raises his son on his own. That’s the role of his life, being a father, and it’s something that he believes in very much.”

BJ proved to be the film’s only casting search. Not only did the actor need to resemble De Niro, but the character had some of the most dramatic scenes in what was otherwise a comedy film.

Gerber discovered Bernthal while staying in Washington, D.C. and visiting a hotel gym. As he tells it, while passing by a table, the cover of one of the city’s local glossy magazines caught his eye and he thought casually, “‘It’s Robert De Niro in ‘Raging Bull.’ But then, I looked closer and realized it wasn’t. And not only did Jon look like a young De Niro, he’s a really great boxer. He’s been a revelation. It was a real score to find Jon.”

Bernthal says he was aware of the familiarity. “I had heard a few times before shooting that I looked like him, and I’m just glad the powers that be agreed.”

Opening across the Philippines in Jan. 15, 2014, “Grudge Match” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer return to their Mafia roots in the dark comedy, The Family,  When a notorious mafia family crosses the mob by committing the ultimate crime of snitching, they are put into the Government Witness Protection Program and shipped off to Normandy, France.  Although they pretend to want to change their lives, old habits die hard, and they soon resort back to their old criminal ways of doing business and settling scores.

Academy Award winner Robert De Niro (The Godfather Part II, Raging Bull) is the dad. Michelle Pfeiffer (Married to the Mob, Scarface) is the Mom.  Dianna Argon (Glee) is their daughter and John D’Leo (The Wrestler) their son. Tommy Lee Jones plays a CIA agent that does his best to keep the family from tipping off their whereabouts with their bad behavior. Directed  Luc Besson (Taken, Transporter).

“The Family ” released and distributed by Captive Cinema.