De Niro to play Lombardi in ESPN movie

You talkin' to me, Tom Landry? You talkin' to me?

He's no Dan Lauria. But hey, Robert De Niro is a pretty good get as Vince Lombardi.

ESPN announced this afternoon that the legendary actor of "Raging Bull" and "Taxi Driver" fame is set to play coach Lombardi in a motion picture to be released on the weekend before Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. The film, titled "Lombardi," is to be produced by ESPN Films, Andell Entertainment and the NFL.

"There are few actors who could accurately portray the fire, passion and grit of Lombardi and we're thrilled to have Robert De Niro on our team," said Charles Coplin, the NFL's vice president of programming.

ESPN also said that screenwriter Eric Roth has joined the project, "which will chronicle Lombardi during the years he transformed the Green Bay Packers from the worst team in the National Football League into five-time NFL champions."

For more on the film, check out our previous post about the initial announcement from July.

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com