Depending on the day of the week, Robert De Niro is either one of the greatest actors of all time or a wash-up former legend slumming it for quick paychecks. Today, it looks like he's most certainly former. He's signed on to join 'Candy Store,' the next project from Oscar winning filmmaker Stephen Gaghan.

You may recognize Gaghan as the writer of Steven Soderbergh's tremendous 'Traffic' (for which his screenplay took home an Academy Award) and the director of 'Syrianna,' for which George Clooney took home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. In other words, he's the kind of filmmaker De Niro should be working with, not the guy who directed 'The Big Wedding.'

The news of the casting comes via Variety, who say that the film takes place "...in the Brooklyn underworld where a former covert ops agent discovers the organization he has been fighting over his career has set up shop in his backyard. He teams with a former cop to stop the threat that could endanger the city of New York." De Niro will play the cop and the great Jason Clarke will play the former agent.

Between this and his Oscar nod for 'Silver Linings Playbook,' we hope this is the start of a strong streak for De Niro.

More From ScreenCrush