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Exclusive: American Gangster Script Review!
AMERICAN GANGSTER
By Steven Zallian
Based on the New York Magazine article
The Return of Superfly written by Mark Jacobson
First draft
10/22/02
167 pages
Oye mira! El Mayimbe aqui!
Gangster movies. Gotta love' em. This particular one has very troubled history though. I remember when it was first announced when it had Denzel Washington and
Benicio Del Toro starring with Antoine Fuqua directing. It didn't happen.
Universal dropped the film with a month to go before filming. Then Terry George came aboard and did a draft (it royally sucked), to do a cheaper version with Don Cheadle starring. Then that got scrapped and Brian Grazer could not let go of Zallian's original draft which is A ****ING GREAT READ! Lo and behold, the movie gods worked their magic and now we got Denzel back as Frank Lucas, with Russell Crowe instead of Benicio and
Ridley Scott directing. That is how good the script is.
Now don't get me wrong, Ridley Scott is a great director even though A GOOD YEAR got hammered this past weekend -- I am of the opinion that a black director should have directed this. For example, Italian gangster movies never worked until they got Italians like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola to do them. Besides being a Horatio Alger story about the rise of a gangster, this story at its heart is about a black gangster from North Carolina in black Harlem. Would have loved to see what Antoine Fuqua would have done with this. That is just my two cents.
Frank Lucas is a fascinating figure. Growing up in hip hop culture in New York, you heard more of the revered Leroy Nicky Barnes the John Gotti bling bling gangster of his day. Just like Gotti, Barnes was a knucklehead who loved the spotlight. Just like Gotti, it was that love of the spotlight that was Nicky Barnes' undoing.
A New York Times Magazine cover story on Nicky Barnes labeling him Mr. Untouchable was the beginning of the end. That article got the attention of then President Jimmy Carter who galvanized authorities in New York to bring down the Harlem Drug Lords.
Frank Lucas is more like Carlo Gambino and wanted to always remain on the DL. A protégé of Bumpy Johnson and his personal driver for 15 years up until his death, Lucas avoided the spotlight, ran his business quietly, and lived quietly and modestly.
It was his Puerto Rican wife Julie, a former Miss Puerto Rico that thought Frank should live a little more. She got him a chinchilla coat to wear for the Ali-Frazier fight, something Lucas would never ever do, but did it for his wife that one night.
That one decision is what got him made by the authorities there that night taking pictures of all the gangsters in attendance. Frank's crime was being there.
Actually, in footage of the Ali-Frazier fight, you can actually see Frank Lucas in his white chinchilla coat. You see, Frank had the better seat than the Italians.
Not only did he have better seats than the Italians, he cut them out of his heroin business completely. For many years before Frank Lucas, Italians were the connects in the drug business the middlemen. Frank cut them out, cut out all the middlemen and completely monopolized the Heroin business. Lucas accomplished what the mafia couldn't do in a hundred years.
Lucas went directly to the source in Bangkok. His **** was 10% pure. The stuff on the street was 5% pure. Not only was Frank's dope 10% pure, he sold it cheaper than everyone else selling it at 5% pure.
Now I choose to review the 1 st draft instead of the subsequent drafts because it's all there laid out in the 1 st draft, although there is some fat in the script.
I am sure by now though as production is proceeding, the script has been tremendously chopped down.
Everything I mentioned above is in the script. Let's take a look a quick peek at the 1 st act.
We meet Frank and Bumpy Johnson at a Fedco discount store where Bumpy has his heart attack and passes away in Frank's arms.
After Bumpy's funeral, which is attended by New York's dignitaries, we meet Richie Roberts in his law class. He then goes on a bust and hurts his hand.
We seen the pictures online of
Russell Crowe with a bandage on his hand it is from that scene. We next meet TANGO who tries to muscle in on Frank
now that Bumpy is gone and wants 20% of everything. Frank doesn't go for it.
Frank leaves and touches down in Bangkok. He checks into a hotel and goes to the Soul Brothers bar where the clientele is almost exclusively black servicemen on R&R. Frank watches people get stoned and meets his man in Bangkok who will be his Asian connect IKE.
Frank hooks up with the Chiu Chiu boss. Frank wants 100 kilos and he gets it. He spent his life savings, $500,000 to get it.
We then get the call to
adventure when Frank calls his brother Shorty. Frank returns stateside, goes to North Carolina, and gathers his brothers and they all go back to Harlem to become dope dealers.
Tango catches Levon, one of Frank's brothers in Harlem and beats the **** out of him.
Frank gets his revenge though and kills Tango in broad daylight on 116 th street.
He shoots him point blank in the forehead. That is the crossing of the first threshold, the end of act 1 and Frank begins his new journey as the head of the Country Boys an American Gangster.
What is fascinating about Frank Lucas, although evil, was a straight shooter.
The bad guys in this script are actually the cops especially the SIU cops who come after Frank and rob him because Frank won't play ball. Frank is the antihero which you root for.
Like I said before, the script was a great read- Zallian is at the top of his game. When Ridley Scott came aboard, Zallian actually rewrote his own script.
American Gangster opens on Nov 2, 2007.
Be sure to check us out next week while we stay on the gangster tip and check out De Palmas next
The Untouchables: Capone Rising.
Hasta el proximo capitulo
YO SOY EL MAYIMBE!
t: 
Theres more shots of Crowe on the set at this link.
