De Niro Analyzes Big Payday

ByABC News
October 22, 2001, 3:02 PM

October 18 -- At last we have the answer to what the sequel to 1999's comedy Analyze This will be called: Analyze That, which is a heck of a lot better than, say, Re-analyze This, or the obvious Analyze This, Too

Robert De Niro will be back in the strangely in-vogue role of a shrink-going mobster, and he'll be getting a career-high salary of nearly $20 million to revisit the part that tweaks his many serious Mafia roles. Negotiations to bring back Billy Crystal, who played De Niro's reluctant shrink in the 1999 film, and director Harold Ramis, are ongoing, according to Variety.

De Niro was actually considering switching to the other side of the couch by playing a phobic therapist who's afraid to leave his apartment in Scared Guys for Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot. There was talk of landing such stars as Adam Sandler and James Gandolfini (who plays his own mobster-on-Prozac part on The Sopranos to perfection) in the role of an equally phobic sibling, but De Niro ultimately opted for the sequel instead.Columbia Pictures is looking for a new A-list actor for Scared Guys. Perhaps Dustin Hoffman is available?

De Niro is also signed to a sequel to his other recent top-grossing comedy, 2000's Meet the Parents. The sequel, entitled Meet the Fockers, is due in 2002.