Legendary actor Sylvester Stallone is headed to the small screen for the first time in his career.
On Thursday [April 28] Deadline revealed he will play the lead role of mob boss Raymonde Aprile in a new show called Omerta. It is based on The Godfather author Mario Puzo‘s last novel. The show will be directed by Antoine Fuqua who’s best known for Training Day, Equalizer, Southpaw and the upcoming Magnificent Seven. The Weinstein Company is producing the show.
Stallone’s career kicked back into high gear after a busy awards season campaign for reprising his role as Rocky in Ryan Coogler‘s Creed. In addition to being a commercial success, his performance and the film were well reviewed. Sly even received an Oscar nomination.
Fuqua and Stallone will be executive producing the show along with Harvey and Bob Weinstein and David Glasser. Harvey Weinstein bought Puzo’s final novel a decade ago to turn it into a movie, but it turns out the material is better for a show.