'The Wire' Star Joins Luc Besson's 'Malavita'

Domenick Lombardozzi has joined the cast of Luc Besson’s thriller Malavita, a black comedy about an America mob boss who moves to France as part of a Witness Protection Program.

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Lombardozzi is best known for his role as Baltimore police sergeant Thomas “Herc” Hauk in The Wire and as the star the canceled cable series Breakout Kings on A&E. His credits also include roles on the TV series 24 and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and in the movies Public Enemies, Miami Vice, Carlito’s Way and Kate & Leopold.

In Malavita, based on the graphic novel Badfellas, he joins a cast that includes Robert De Niro as the American mob boss, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones.

De Niro, who cast Lombardozzi in his first film role in A Bronx Tale in 1993 (which De Niro directed and starred in), is the mob boss in Malavita who moves to a small town in Normandy but can’t stop his old habits. He begins to impose his will on the residents of the unsuspecting town. 

Lombardozzi, who is represented by Leverage Management and the Gersh Agency,  will play an FBI agent who is charged with protecting De Niro.

Lombardozzi recently finished shooting Blood Ties for director Guillaume Canet, playing the best friend of star Clive Owen’s character, opposite Marion Cotillard and Mila Kunis.

Malavita, a live-action movie being shot in English, is a co-production of EuropaCorp International and Relativity Media, which will release it in the U.S.