Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Reel People: Denzel Washington is Frank Lucas

The film is American Gangster directed by Ridley Scott which stars Denzel Washington as 1970's heroin dealer Frank "Superfly" Lucas out of Harlem.

Frank Lucas claims to have made over one million dollars selling heroin on 116th street. And one time might have had as much as 56 million dollars sitting in Cayman Island banks as the result of his drug trade/smuggling where he would bring in high purity heroin in the coffins of dead Americans returning from Vietnam. His simple selling technique was that he owned the street, sold high quality dope, and would sell it around four in the afternoon when the day and night cops were changing shifts. Lucas was eventually caught and sentenced to jail where he released the names of over 100 other criminals, and later released for cooperation. (source)

The film, American Gangster co-stars Russell Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts. The screenplay is writen by screen-writer Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs of New York). The film also stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Chiwetel Ejiofor and has appearances by rappers TI, Common, and RZA.

This biographical film could certainly earn Washington some critical awards attention for his portrayl of the Real (Reel) Person.

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3 comments:

Sheila West said...

A remake of Superfly. Wow.

Anonymous said...

I can always do without Cuban Gooding Jr in a movie!

F.J. Delgado said...

Although I agree with andrea about Cuba, this should be a good flick - will definitely catch it in the theaters.