Pete Davidson Set To Play Real-Life Mafia Killer Tommy Karate with Paul Walter Hauser as DEA Agent Jim Hunt
If you've ever wanted to see Pete Davidson go full mob enforcer, your moment has arrived.
Davidson is set to star as Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera in the upcoming crime thriller Tommy Karate, a passion project three years in the making that the former SNL cast member describes as a dream.
The film is adapted from Philip Carlo's non-fiction true crime book The Butcher: Anatomy Of A Mafia Psychopath, and it charts the rise and eventual takedown of one of the most feared figures in American organized crime.
Pitera was a soldier, then captain, in New York's Bonanno crime family and was suspected by law enforcement of committing as many as 60 murders. He earned his nickname through a genuine, deeply unsettling mastery of karate and martial arts, skills he developed from a young age that made him a different kind of dangerous.
He's currently serving a life sentence at USP Big Sandy in Kentucky after going down in 1992 on murder charges and running a massive drug operation.
Playing the DEA agent who helped bring him down is Paul Walter Hauser, fresh off his great work in Black Bird. His character, Agent Jim Hunt, the real federal agent who helped dismantle Pitera's operation and later played a role in taking down El Chapo. The cat-and-mouse dynamic between these two real-life figures is the engine driving the whole story.
Rounding out the cast are Camila Mendes (Masters of the Universe) and Simon Rex (Red Rocket). Justin Chon, the director behind the Cannes title Blue Bayou and hit Apple series Pachinko, is helming the project.
The screenplay was written by Davidson, Chon, and Joseph Gay, with production companies North.Five.Six, Two & Two Pictures, and Gramercy Park Media all attached.
Davidson, who also serves as a producer on the film, talked about how much this one means to him: "Tommy Karate is the greatest mob story never told.
“I've been working on this for over three years, and I'm beyond thrilled that it's finally in motion. Playing a role like this is a dream job. We have a great team behind this one, and I can't wait for people to see what we've come up with."
Three years is a long time to carry a project, and that kind of investment tends to show on screen. It also signals that Davidson isn't approaching this as a vanity detour. He clearly believes in the material.
Chon's comments about the direction of the film are equally interesting. Rather than leaning into the nostalgic Scorsese-era mob aesthetic that Hollywood keeps returning to, he's pitching something newer and more grounded:
"Together with Pete and the team, we're reimagining the gangster genre through a contemporary lens, driven by character, fresh visuals, and real consequence. This isn't nostalgia. It's a reinvention."
Paired with source material this dark and a true story this stranger than fiction, Tommy Karate has all the ingredients to be something genuinely memorable.
Production kicks off in June, and based on everything we know so far, this one has serious potential.
Source: Deadline