Book Vs Movie: "American Gangster" (2007) Denzel Washington

 

Book Vs Movie

The Return of Superfly Vs American Gangster 

The 2000 New York magazine article from Mark Jacobson Vs the 2007 Ridley Scott Film

The Margos are heading back to NYC in the gritty 1970s talking about the New York magazine article The Return of Superfly by Mark Jacobson which appeared in their August 14, 2000 issue and was immediately bought as a film property for Imagine Entertainment/Universal Pictures. It took seven years and went through many different hands before Ridley Scott filmed the 2007 movie starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. 

The story focuses on a heroin dealer from North Carolina (Frank Lucas/Washington) who came to Harlem in the late 1960s and became a million-dollar dealer/drug kingpin taking over 118th Street & 8th Avenue for years before being caught by an undercover team of “not-on-the-take” Newark police headed up by Richie Roberts (Crowe.) 

When Roberts is not investigating Lucas, he is studying to be a lawyer and dealing with a stressful divorce and child custody issue. 

Lucas inherited the territory from noted Harlem gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson after his death and used the Viet Nam War to his advantage to get 100% pure heroin that sold on the streets as “Blue Magic.” Thousands become addicted to it and Lucas is now the drug king of New York City. 

What makes this episode extra special is that we interview Erin Hennicke of the Best Neighbors Podcast (Margo D. co-hosts that show!)  Erin was the person who bought the rights to the article for Universal in 2000 and talks about the long journey to the Ridley Scott film. She also talks about the whole process of getting books and magazine articles to screen and offers advice to potential writers out there. 

This is an extra special episode and hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Between the article and film--which did the Margos like better? 

In this ep the Margos discuss:

• The story behind the New York article 
• The journey between different actors and directors attached to the project
• How crafty Frank Lucas was in transporting the drugs straight from Bangcock, Thailand and the multiples of people he was forced to pay off
• How a chinchilla coat broke his “cover”
• The really bad makeup job done on actor Joe Morton!
• The cast which includes: Denzel Washington (Frank Lucas,) Russell Crowe (Richie Roberts,) Chiwetel Ejiofor (Huey Lucas,) Josh Brolin (Detective Trupo,) Lymari Nadal (Eva,) Ted Levine (Lou Toback,) Ruby Dee (Mama Lucas,) Carla Gugino (Laurie Roberts,) Cuba Gooding Jr (Nicky Barnes,) Clarence Williams III (“Bumpy” Johnson,) Armande Assante (Dominic Cattano,) RZA (Moses Jones,) Common (Turner Lucas,) Joe Morton (Charlie Williams,) and Idris Elba (Tango.) 

Clips Featured:

• American Gangster trailer
• Frank & his mother argue
• Frank takes out Tango
• Music by Anthony Hamilton “Do You Feel Me”

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Margo D. @BrooklynFitChik www.brooklynfitchick.com [email protected]

Margo P. @ShesNachoMama https://coloniabook.weebly.com/