Actor-turned-director Robert De Niro originally selected Leonardo DiCaprio to star in “The Good Shepherd”, but had to cast Matt Damon instead after the former dropped out because of scheduling conflicts.

De Niro was all set to begin filming and without wasting much time decided to replace DiCaprio with Matt Damon in the lead. “Leonardo DiCaprio was originally going to do it, but he had schedule problems and it got so complicated. I said I had to move on quickly because I had all the machinery of the movie moving forward,”he said. This is only De Niro’s second stint behind the camera and he admits good friend and colleague Martin Scorsese heavily influence his directing style.