According to The Hollywood Reporter, John Leguizamo, Dan Futterman, Trilby Glover, and Rob Dyrdek have joined the cast of “Righteous Kill.”  The film is directed by Jon Avnet, written by Russell Gewirtz, and will be produced by Avnet.

“Righteous Kill” will star Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro as New York City detectives investigating vigilante killings.  It is set to begin filming on Tuesday, and will be distributed by Overture films.

There are a lot of reasons to get excited about this one.  Most people will remember the explosive DeNiro/Pacino face off in “Heat,” the first time the two appeared onscreen together, despite both appearing in “The Godfather: Part II.”  Hopefully, both play to their strengths, but I also hope that the film doesn’t devolve into the two just repeating angry clichés.

Avnet has done a lot of TV work recently, and his most recent film direction was back in 1997 with “Red Corner.”  He also directed the Al Pacino starrer “88 Minutes,” which will be released in 2008.

I’ve only seen Avnet’s “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “The War,” and neither of those lend themselves to the thriller genre, so we’ll see how this one goes.