American Gangster - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[ella]

The story was first inspired by an article in New York Magazine written by Mark Jacobson. He was introduced to the real Frank Lucas by author Nicholas Pileggi. Not long afterwards, Pileggi encouraged Steven Zaillian to write an adaptation of Jacobson's article. While Zaillian was working on this, Brian Grazer bought the rights to the project.

[jim]

This is Ridley Scott's and Denzel Washington's first collaboration together. Washington did five film collaborations with Ridley's late younger brother Tony Scott.

[oscar]

Denzel Washington and Roger Guenveur Smith appeared together in Malcolm X (1992) and He Got Game (1998)

[ken]

50 Cent auditioned for the role of Huey Lucas.

[manuel]

Russell Crowe requested tape recordings of Richie Roberts speaking, in order to match his voice mannerisms accurately.

[miriam]

Dania Ramirez was originally cast in the film when Antoine Fuqua was still directing the production.

[jesus]

The character Dominick Cattano (played by Armand Assante) was loosely based on real-life mobster and drug trafficker Vincent Papa. At the time the movie portrays, the Italian Mob were supplying much of NYC massive amounts of narcotics that were confiscated from the original "French Connection" case from the early 1960's where an approximate $400 million dollars of heroin were stolen from the NYPD property clerks office located at 400 Broome Street in Manhattan, NY. The scope and depth of this scheme are still not known, but officials suspect it involved corrupt NYPD officers who allowed Vincent Papa, Virgil Allesi, Anthony Loria and other notorious mafia members access to the NYPD property/evidence storage room, where hundreds of kilograms of heroin lay seized from the now-infamous French Connection bust, and from which the men would help themselves and replace missing heroin with flour and cornstarch to avoid detection.

[ronnie]

Despite being the top billed actors, Denzel Washington (Frank Lucas) & Russell Crowe (Richie Roberts) don't meet face to face till around the 2:33:10 mark of the movie & share the last 23 minutes of the movie together. The closest they get to sharing a scene is the Ali Vs. Frazier boxing match scene.

[wesley]

Rza, who plays Jones, has a tattoo clearly visible on his left shoulder. It says Rza in the middle of the letter W. Rza was a vocalist for the group Wu Tang Clan, which the W represents.

[francisco]

During the first stages of production, this film had a few different titles, such as "Tru Blu" and "The Return of Superfly".

[riley]

Josh Brolin played Special Investigations Unit Trupo in this film. Denzel Washington played SIU agent in Training Day.

[veronica]

When Terry George was set to direct the film, with Don Cheadle as Frank Lucas, Joaquin Phoenix was a definite consideration for the role of Richie Roberts. Phoenix previously co-starred with Russell Crowe in Gladiator (2000), which was also directed by Ridley Scott.

[melinda]

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe previously worked together on Virtuosity (1995).

[carl]

Former DEA agents Jack Toal, Gregory Korniloff, and Louis Diaz filed a lawsuit against Universal Pictures, saying that the events in the film were fictionalized, and that the film defamed them and hundreds of other agents. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, since it technically failed to show anyone identifiable as a DEA agent.

[stephanie]

Features Ruby Dee's only Oscar nominated performance.

[kristen]

Composer Marc Streitenfeld blended blues and soul music into the musical score to fit the 1970s setting.

[eli]

While filming on-location in the Chiang Mai province of Thailand, Ridley Scott hired many extras from the local villages, some of whom were actual participants in the drug-running operation of Frank Lucas during the Vietnam War.

[morris]

Antoine Fuqua was originally set to direct this project in 2004 with Denzel Washington and Benicio Del Toro starring, but production was halted one month before shooting after Universal Pictures canceled the film over budget concerns. However, Washington and Del Toro received their salaries nonetheless. A pay-or-play deal was stipulated in both of their contracts that Universal would pay Washington $20 million, and Del Toro $5 million, regardless of whether the film was made or not. Once this project was green-lit by Universal a second time, under Ridley Scott's direction, Washington returned to the project without an upfront fee. He also received half of his $20 million salary for the previous year's Inside Man (2006), another Imagine Entertainment production.