Pete Davidson has been shown for the first time as Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera in the upcoming crime thriller Tommy Karate, giving the film its clearest look yet as production continues in Atlanta. The image marks the project’s first official reveal and confirms Davidson at the center of a real-life mob story.
That shift matters because Davidson, best known for comedy, is playing a feared enforcer for the Bonanno crime family in a film built around the investigation that led to Pitera’s arrest. The project is adapted from Philip Carlo’s non-fiction book The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath, and it comes with Paul Walter Hauser as DEA agent Jim Hunt, the man trying to bring Pitera to justice.
The role is the product of a long build. Davidson said it was his “dream job” and that he spent more than three years developing the project before cameras started rolling. Tommy Karate is directed by Justin Chon, who co-wrote the screenplay with Davidson and Joseph Gay, and the cast also includes Camila Mendes and Simon Rex.
The story’s most unnerving detail remains the one built into the premise itself: Pitera was suspected of as many as 60 murders, a number that frames him as more than just another mob figure in a period crime tale. Here, the film’s first image does what a trailer cannot yet do. It turns Davidson’s transformation into proof that the production is moving forward, even if the filmmakers have not announced a release date.
For now, the unanswered question is not what Tommy Karate is about. It is when audiences will get to see Davidson’s turn as Pitera after more than three years of work. Until then, the first look is the clearest sign that the movie is nearing completion.
