Zaillian is Back on American Gangster
Variety
March 24, 2006
Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment have rehired Steve
Zaillian, this time to rewrite American Gangster.
The studio has also committed to a late July start date for the film to
be directed by Ridley Scott and star Denzel Washington and Russell
Crowe. Brian Grazer is producing.
Zaillian had written the original script about a Harlem drug kingpin
(Washington) who smuggled heroin in the body bags of U.S. soldiers slain
in Vietnam.
After the film halted last year, Universal conscripted Terry George to
write a downsized version of the story, but Grazer and Imagine exec Jim
Whitaker couldn’t let go of Zaillian’s vision of the crime story.
The film will shoot mostly in New York, with a brief stopover in Thailand.
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