Public Enemies on Mafia Wars

To help promote the Dec. 8 DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of Public Enemies, Universal Studios Home Entertainment teamed with Zynga for a cross-promotion with its online Mafia Wars game.

Mafia Wars is a role-playing game accessed through social media sites such as Facebook that lets users run their own crime family, participate in various crimes and steal loot. In early December Mafia Wars staged “Public Enemies Week,” helping to promote the gangster flick with special jobs and loot objects based on the film’s plot.

The campaign, led by appssavvy, a direct sales team for the social media space, in partnership with the Los Angeles office of Ignited, a marketing innovations agency working on behalf of Universal, was touted as the first such promotion of its kind. Mafia Wars is played by more than 25 million Facebook users.

“Public Enemies on Mafia Wars is the blockbuster social media campaign of 2009,” said Chris Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of appssavvy. “The foundation of every campaign we’re involved with is focused on relevance and delivering something the end user will find valuable. This effort with Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Zynga demonstrated these fundamentals of social media marketing to perfection.”

Zynga reported Public Enemies Loot garnered nearly 55 million interactions during the week-long campaign, and tie-ins to Public Enemies activities within the game were posted to players’ Facebook news feeds more than 7.6 million times, delivering nearly a billion viral impressions. The campaign generated nearly 25,000 ‘Likes’ and more than 26,000 comments on the Mafia Wars Facebook fan page.

“Even John Dillinger would be impressed with the scope and success of this effort,” said Mike Wokosin, VP of digital marketing for USHE. “Mafia Wars was an incredibly dynamic environment to seamlessly integrate our property and to effectively engage a significant and relevant audience.”

Thanks to John Latchem

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Gomorrah DVD

Matteo Garrone's GOMORRAH is a dense, sprawling exposé of the corruption plaguing the communities of Naples and Caserta in modern-day Italy. all-powerful Camorra syndicate influences the lives of even the most innocent citizens. In a manner similar to THE WIRE, Garrone tells his story from many different angles, resulting in a complicated narrative that often feels novelistic. In many cases, the revolving stories never overlap or intersect. While that may be jarring to those viewers who are used to having their strings tied neatly for them by a film's conclusion, Garrone's decision results in an experience that feels much more honest and true. We witness the syndicate's impact from the top down and from the inside out, following a cavalcade of characters who are all trying in their own ways to escape the deadly world in which they live.

Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, Garrone's crime epic is a powerful indictment of the corruption that is running rampant in Italy. His decision to present such a wide spectrum of characters enables him to show just how deeply everyone is impacted by this terrifying, unchecked display of criminal power. Cinematically, he employs a dizzying array of styles in order to further establish the frighteningly ungoverned atmosphere that pervades this community. GOMORRAH succeeds as both visceral entertainment and thoughtful social commentary. (2 hrs. 17 min.)

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The Making of "Chicago Overcoat"

Chris Charles says he warned his star up front: "But I don't think it really registered till his first day of shooting in downtown Chicago."

Charles had cast Frank Vincent as the lead in Chicago Overcoat, an independent drama that received its world premiere Saturday, October 10, at the Chicago International Film Festival. Known almost exclusively for playing gangsters—including New York crime boss Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos and Billy Batts, who ends up in a trunk in Goodfellas—Vincent, 70, got to the set in October 2007 and realized that most of the crew were in their early 20s. "He's looking around like, 'Where'd all these kids come from?'" says Charles, who's now 25.

Chicago Overcoat was the first full-length feature produced by Beverly Ridge Pictures, a company formed in 2005 by six Columbia College film students, including Charles. Writer-director Brian Caunter, now 26, and writer-producer John Bosher, now 25, developed a sideline producing promotional and music videos while roommates at Columbia. Their "booty video," as Caunter calls it, for Joe Glass & IROC's "Two" got heavy rotation on BET Uncut in 2004. The next year, Caunter and Bosher joined forces with Charles, Philip Plowden, Kevin Moss, and William Maursky to form Beverly Ridge, named after Moss's far-south-side neighborhood. "The name sounds Hollywood, but it's also kind of Chicago," Caunter explains. They used Givens Castle, a Beverly landmark, as their logo. Charles directed Beverly Ridge's first production, a short adaptation of the Ray Bradbury short story "The Small Assassin."

In 2006 the six friends worked on a low-budget thriller called The Devil's Dominoes, directed by Scott Prestin, owner of the now-defunct Wicker Park bar Ginbucks. "We realized from that experience that we were more prepared than we thought to make a feature," Charles says. They were all fans of gangster films and figured they could make one without incurring a lot of extra production costs by taking advantage of Chicago locations.

"For months all we had was a title," says Caunter. His grandmother in Ohio had suggested "Chicago Overcoat," Prohibition-era slang for a coffin. The Family Secrets mob trials were in the headlines at the time and wound up providing inspiration for the screenplay.

Vincent plays Lou Marazano, an old hit man for the Chicago Outfit, who accepts his first contract in years—going after witnesses in a union pension-fund embezzlement case—to finance his Vegas retirement. Another Goodfellas vet, Mike Starr, is the underboss who exploits Marazano's money troubles. Another Sopranos alum, Kathrine Narducci, plays Marazano's old flame and alibi. Armand Assante plays the jailed boss facing trial. Chicago-based actor Danny Goldring is the alcoholic detective who's been chasing Marazano since the 1980s. And Stacy Keach does a cameo as a retired investigator pulled off the case when he got too close to city corruption.

"We were huge fans of The Sopranos," Caunter says. "We decided to write the script with Frank Vincent in mind so when he read it he'd feel like the main character is Frank Vincent. His book A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man was our character outline." The partners figured that "if we could create roles from scratch for celebrities, knowing they'd want to play something different, something challenging, we'd have an easier time recruiting them," Charles says. "We usually see Frank as a high-rolling mobster, higher on the food chain. In this film he's very humbled, very flawed, taking orders from guys younger than him."

Charles got the script to Vincent's people, and Vincent responded even though it came from unknowns in flyover country. "What appealed to me was the sensitivity of playing the softer side of a mob guy," Vincent says, "a guy who's not in control, who's looking to get the control." Vincent says he met a lot of mafiosi while touring as a drummer for Del Shannon and Paul Anka in the 1960s, helping him perfect a persona he's portrayed in Scorsese masterpieces and B movies alike. "They all have a way of looking at you, of intimidating you," Vincent says. "They're all evil. I can give a look or a stare that people read as evil."

Caunter and Charles signed Vincent at a place called Goodfellas Ristorante near his New Jersey home. "Frank walked in in a jumpsuit with a gold chain, looking like he walked off the set of The Sopranos," Charles says.

Once Vincent signed on, the other leads followed. Joe Mantegna was cast as the detective but dropped out weeks before shooting to take a role on CBS's Criminal Minds. "That was tough," Charles says. "I'd worked very hard to cast Joe." Goldring, who played the last clown killed in the opening bank heist sequence of The Dark Knight, stepped in. "They're so young, but they really got the writing for old-timers down," Goldring says.

The mother of cinematographer Kevin Moss, JoAnne Moss, who runs a real estate title insurance firm, personally invested "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and helped raise the rest of the $2 million budget, according to a report in Crain's Chicago Business. "Originally it was a smaller film. But as we found some success attaching talent, the budget increased," Charles says. "The project just kept getting bigger."

The filmmakers' youth "concerned me, absolutely," Vincent says. "They were younger than my kids. I've never experienced that before in all the films I've done, such a young team. . . . I figured if they were going to screw up, they'd screw up right away. As we progressed into the shoot, it became clear that they really knew what they wanted, and that was enough to make me confident."

Caunter, who turned 24 during the shoot, says he felt like "a chicken with its head cut off. Most of the time you have no idea what's going on. You feel like the world is going to end. You shoot for 12 hours, you come home and feel like you failed. The next day you feel like you want to redeem yourself. I think that's what makes a good movie—the struggle. If everything went your way it might feel kind of washy. I never had that experience, so I don't know."

The biggest adjustment for Caunter was learning to adapt to each actor's approach. "Frank is quite easygoing," he says. "Armand is the polar opposite. Armand would scream obscenities at the top of his lungs before the take. That alone would scare half the set, and then we'd roll the camera."

"They turned me loose," says Goldring. "That can be a dangerous thing for any actor, but they also had the good sense to rein me in. I'm a passion merchant. Doing Chicago Overcoat allowed me to let my passions out. The [character] is . . . ornery. He likes to tip back a few. Even though I don't do that anymore, I can play one on TV."

Accusations of ethnic stereotyping have dogged many of Vincent's projects. Last spring, MillerCoors pulled a series of ads featuring Vincent and Starr as mobsters after complaints from the Order Sons of Italy in America. Chicago Overcoat is no exception. After principal photography wrapped in November 2007, Bosher got an e-mail from Bill Dal Cerro of the advocacy group Italic Institute of America. Dal Cerro wrote, "It saddens—and yes, sickens me—that you are reverting to the oldest game in the book in your quest for Hollywood fame: namely, stoking prejudice against Americans of Italian descent by producing yet another pointless Italian 'mob' movie."

"I told him they can't force us to stop making movies that people want to see," Bosher says. "They have to change people's minds." Let them protest, adds Vincent, who sells "mobbleheads" of his Goodfellas character on his Web site. "It'll do the movie good."

It's going to be tough to recover the $2 million budget in today's independent film market, which is arguably in a deeper slump than the rest of the economy. Todd Slater of LA-based Huntsman Entertainment is shopping the film to distributors. "We've had a lot of offers from smaller companies," Charles says. "We've been waiting patiently for the right buyer. We want an offer we can't refuse."

Thanks to Ed M. Koziarski

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"Chicago Overcoat" Film Locations

In "Chicago Overcoat," Lou Marazano (Frank Vincent), a has-been hit man who hung up his weapons in the 1980s, comes out of retirement 20 years later to resume his career as a triggerman for the Chicago Outfit. John Bosher, who co-wrote the movie with fellow alums from Columbia College Chicago, says they looked for locations that represented the gritty underbelly of Chicago. Here are descriptions of a few of the more than 50 locations of the film, which is being screened as part of the Chicago International Film Festival, gathered from a phone interview with Bosher.

--Franco's Ristorante, 300 W. 31st St.: This corner spot in Bridgeport is used for exterior shots of the place where the gangsters hang out.

Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland Ave.: The filmmakers removed the modern-day decor of this late-night spot and transformed it into a gathering place for the gangsters that looks like a 1980s strip club. Additions included poles for the strippers and a stage with a glass floor lit from below.

La Villa Restaurant & Banquet, 3636 N. Pulaski Rd.: This Italian restaurant stands in for the interior of Franco's Ristorante.

Nicky's Carry Out, 3501 S. Western Ave.: Lou takes his young grandson to this small McKinley Park spot to introduce him to a Chicago-style hot dog and a serving of life's lessons.

George's Automotive Repair, 3209 W. Barry Ave.: Lou and a young member of his crew mosey in to this neighborhood shop to shake down the owner. They do a bit of damage when he refuses to pay a street tax.

Alley at Franklin and Superior streets: Dumpsters stand against the brick wall of this dark alley where Lou gets back to work as a hit man.

Under the Dan Ryan Expressway at Cermak Road and Halsted Street: Imposing columns tower over this secluded space where Lou has a rendezvous with disgruntled members of the Outfit. The filmmakers wanted to give the shoot-out the feel of a scene in a Hollywood Western.

Police station, 2259 S. Damen Ave.: An abandoned Chicago Police station was cleaned up, furnished and rehabbed as a room where Lou is interrogated and placed in a lineup. Windows that had been boarded up were opened, and a Metro Police station sign was put up so as not to confuse the fictional police officers who behave badly in the film with Chicago's finest.

Thanks to Nancy Maes

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"Chicago Overcoat" to Debut at Chicago International Film Festival

Six Columbia alumni will debut their first feature-length film, Chicago Overcoat, at the Chicago International Film Festival on Oct. 10.

Loosely based on the Chicago crime syndicate, Chicago Overcoat tells the story of Lou Marzano, an aging gangster who is upset with the way the mob functions in the modern era and wants it to be as it was in his day.

Columbia is the presenting sponsor at the Chicago International Film Festival this year, and Chicago Overcoat will be screened multiple times. The movie’s stars, Frank Vincent and Katherine Narducci of “The Sopranos,” as well as Mike Starr, will make appearances throughout the weekend of the festival. The cast also includes Armand Assante and Chicago’s own Danny Goldring.

The presenting sponsors of the festival, Columbia’s National Director of Alumni Relations Josh Culley-Foster and Vice President of Institutional Advancement Eric Winston, joined forces with Columbia’s marketing team to plan the national debut of the film at the festival.

The crew’s independent production company, Beverly Ridge Pictures, produced the film. The crew consists of writer/director Brian Caunter, writer/producer John Bosher, associate producer/casting director Chris Charles, associate producer/director of photography Kevin Moss, director of production William Maursky and co-producer/production designer Philip Plowden.

The idea for the film came from Caunter’s grandmother, who said a “Chicago overcoat” is an old gangster term for coffin.

“[Caunter] thought it was a really fascinating idea and we were thinking about what kind of stories could focus on Chicago [and have] Chicago as a backdrop,” Charles said. “John suggested a gangster movie. We realized that nobody had done a modern-day Chicago mob story [before].”

Shot in more than 70 locations, the filmmakers chose not only the familiar sides of Chicago, but also gritty scenery not seen in most films where Chicago is the backdrop.

“We have underground locations for some of the scenes,” Plowden said. “It provided a layer of realism to the film. For us, it was nice to add that layer.”

Working with a little more than $1 million, Chicago Overcoat conceals evidence of the tight budget through disciplined production schedules, sharp cinematography and devout professionalism, as well as the use of an antique, yet fully functional Thompson submachine gun.

Enlisting the help of Columbia students and recent graduates, the crew of Chicago Overcoat dedicated themselves and each gave their best effort.

“The people in the cast and crew got a lot out of the experience,” Bosher said. It was nice to have a production that really had that independent spirit—that young, go-getter attitude. Their hunger, excitement and desire for making the most of their opportunities allowed us to get an efficient crew.”

Columbia will hold an exclusive viewing night for the college community prior to the world premiere of Chicago Overcoat on Oct. 9. The evening will also feature the short film Burden, created by Charles and Bosher while they were students at Columbia.

“Just to be one of five films from the [U.S.] to be at this festival is incredible,” Charles said. “We’re very excited.” Charles said one of the greatest things about Columbia is being able to network. “There’s a lot of collaboration, whether it’s with your professors who work in the industry or your fellow classmates,” Charles said.

A filmmaker can meet a handful of really good, hardworking people, said Film and Video instructor Clint Vaupel. “If you prove yourself and you do what you need to do, other people will see that, and your name gets passed on,” Vaupel said. “A big family is made and people look out for each other.”

Thanks to Ciara Shook

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"Public Enemies" vs "The Untouchables" Throw Down

Brandishing a murderers' row of cheekbones and all the muzzle money can buy, Michael Mann's Public Enemies offers us a romantic vision of the Depression-era bandit John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) as he's chased by a federal agent (Christian Bale) across the Midwest. Over two decades ago, Brian De Palma's hit The Untouchables gave us a decidedly more black-and-white take on cops and robbers, with a team of virtuous good guys working to unravel the blood-and-booze-soaked empire of the Chicago mob boss Al Capone (Robert De Niro). So, when Mann's brooding crime epic and De Palma's sensational action flick face off, which of these pictures runs away with the loot?

The Long Arm of the Law

Public Enemies: Stone-faced FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Bale) is unrelenting in his pursuit of Dillinger, despite having issues with the strong-arm tactics encouraged by a young J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup).

The Untouchables: Idealistic Treasury official Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) is such a paragon of virtue that he needs to be schooled by loyal beat cop Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery) in the ways of Chicago crime-fighting.

Winner: The Untouchables. Ness is a bit one-dimensional, but Malone and the other "untouchables" are the heart of this flick.


Mythical Actors, Mythical Outlaws

Public Enemies: Thanks to a spree of bank robberies in which he refuses to take ordinary citizens' money, Depp's John Dillinger achieves folk-hero status during the Great Depression.

The Untouchables: Although he claims to be a man of the people, De Niro's Al Capone is a brutal thug who will stoop to beating an associate with a baseball bat when the situation demands it.

Winner: Public Enemies. De Niro makes for a great movie monster, but Depp's Zen outlaw has a riveting appeal.

Violence, Violence, and More Violence

Public Enemies: Epic gun battles plague Dillinger and company. Almost always, it's because some idiot started shooting without provocation.

The Untouchables: Although most of them are new to gunplay, Ness and his men quickly become adept at shoot-outs -- most notably when they have to intercept a mob bookkeeper at a Chicago train station and a baby carriage gets in the way.

Winner: The Untouchables. Public Enemies has some beautifully intense sequences, but De Palma's film is basically one stunning set-piece after another.

Verdict
Winner: A tie. It's hard to match The Untouchables for sheer entertainment value, but Public Enemies' moody, ethereal take on the Dillinger saga is lovely and haunting.

Thanks to Bilge Ebiri

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Mafia Drama, Brotherhood, Cancelled

Showtime has confirmed that the drama Brotherhood, about two Irish brothers on opposite sides of the law, has been cancelled.

After three seasons on TV the show, set in Providence, will not be renewed. Brotherhood's story was one told many times before, but with a New England mafia twist: Tommy (Jason Clarke) and Michael (Jason Isaacs) Caffee, Irish-American brothers, find themselves on enemy fronts, the first being a policeman and the second a mafia professional.

E! Online's Watch With Kristin reports that, "News that the ax had officially dropped was first reported when TVShowsonDVD.com discovered that the season-three discs were to be branded 'the final season.' The cancellation news might have been surprising even for the show's own cast since, according to the same article on E!, actress Fionnula Flanagan was awaiting news from Showtime regarding the show's "on hiatus" status in February.

Thanks to Romina Massa

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Top 10 Best Hollywood Mobsters of All-Time

As moviegoers prepare for Johnny Depp's John Dillinger facing off against Christian Bale's FBI man Melvin Purvis in "Public Enemies," the mob is on the mind - so here, for your debating pleasure, are 10 of the greatest "trouble boys" to ever grace the screen, small or big. And before you snatch your gats to drill this jingle-brained finkeloo, nibble one and pipe the rules: These are mobsters, as in members of highly organized crime syndicates, not just criminals who are well organized (sorry, Robert De Niro in "Heat"), free agents (such as Dillinger's gang) or lugs with bean-shooters (sorry, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in "Bonnie and Clyde" and James Cagney in "White Heat"). All silk so far?

10 Roman Moroni (Richard Dimitri, "Johnny Dangerously"):
Just as Al Capone went to the big house for income-tax evasion, the malevolently malapropping Moroni ("You fargin sneaky bastage ... bunch of fargin iceholes") was convicted of murdering ... the English language. The headlines blared his punishment: "Moroni Deported to Sweden. Says He's Not From There."

9 Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci, "GoodFellas (Two-Disc Special Edition)"):
Martin Scorsese's masterwork may be the greatest mobster movie ever, mostly because of his gripping direction. The cocaine freak-out sequence should be taught in film-school editing classes. Pesci's Tommy, with the deadliest case of short man's disease this side of Kim Jong Il, made lines such as, "Funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you?" part of the tough-guy lexicon.

8 Al Capone (Robert De Niro, "The Untouchables (Special Collector's Edition)"):
"I want him dead! I want his family dead! ... I want to go there in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!" Chicago's poet laureate, David Mamet, was the perfect guy to write the screenplay, and De Niro, in yet another stunningly transformative performance, was the last guy you'd want pacing behind you with a baseball bat.

7 Sonny Corleone (James Caan, "The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration"):
The trash-can beating he administered to his brother-in-law is a classic. Viewers suffered tollbooth phobia that had nothing to do with misplaced FasTrak passes for years after witnessing Sonny's fate (which Mad magazine attributed to his trying to pay with a large bill). Bonus points: The DVD includes a great Easter egg (hidden feature) of Caan doing a Marlon Brando impersonation.

6 Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition)"):
If you had never seen Mortensen before this film, you'd think he was that guy, that the filmmakers had just pulled some Russian dude out of a high-end London nightclub. Equal parts preening macho narcissist and cold-blooded hatchet man, he tops even "Borat" for best naked fight.

5 Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro, "The Godfather Part II - The Coppola Restoration"):
The up-and-coming De Niro was picking up the origin story of an already-iconic character that had won an Oscar for an iconic actor (Marlon Brando in "The Godfather"), and he had to do it in Sicilian, a dialect he had learned just a few years before for another film. His portrayal is not only feeling, thinking and reactive, but it also creates a bridge to Brando's work that brilliantly illustrates the character's evolution.

4 Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis, "Gangs of New York (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)"):
One of the great screen villains, which we can now see as Daniel Plainview with one more pin of civility removed. A movie monster on the order of Hannibal Lecter, but with a heart and that disturbing false eye. There is, by the way, no truth to the Internet rumor that Day-Lewis was originally to play "Priest" Vallon to Robert De Niro's Bill.

3 Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini, "The Sopranos - The Complete Series"):
The best TV mobster ever. Like Vito Corleone, a multilayered family man - but he's more flawed and real. Bonus points: There's a classic Easter egg in the bonus disc of the original "Godfather" set in which Tony and the boys try to watch a bootleg copy of the 1972 movie.

2 Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, "The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration"):
Brando gets the nod over De Niro's portrayal of the title character because of the older version's dark mystery and the already arrived quality of the kindly patriarch, who also made people wet their pants in fear. The improvised orange-in-the-mouth ape scene alone, in the greater context of the head of the Corleone crime family, is enough for enshrinement here.

1 Tony Montana (Al Pacino, "Scarface (Widescreen Anniversary Edition)"):
One of the rare ultra-violent movies that women love as much as men do. Its excesses are its successes, from the nosedive into a molehill of yayo to the chain-saw-in-the-shower scene. But the true test of this performance's greatness is to imagine its famous lines delivered by someone - anyone - else. Could even Daniel Day-Lewis or Denzel Washington or Robert De Niro have so unforgettably spat out, "Say hello to my little friend"? No, there is no one else who could have quite pulled off that haircut, that suit, that accent, that je ne sais quoi. It's Pacino waaaay over the top, where he belongs. And considering the character's lingering cultural impact, especially in hip-hop, it surpasses even the Godfather himself. So take a look at the bad guy. You won't see his kind again.

Runners-up: Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson, "Pulp Fiction"), Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, "Sexy Beast"), Furio Giunta (Federico Castelluccio, "The Sopranos - The Complete Series"), Bugsy Malone (Scott Baio, "Bugsy Malone"), Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington, "American Gangster (2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition)") and Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi, "The Sopranos - The Complete Series").

Thanks to Michael Ordona

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Hollywood's Love Affair with Gangsters Continues to Grow

What is it about the gangster that has always captivated our public imagination?

In America, since the very first black- and-white silent films, we’ve been mesmerized by the fedoras, the guns, the women and the nightlife. These were the men who broke all the rules - when they weren’t writing their own rules - and lived the good life as a result.

In this way, they aren’t just criminals but also a certain special sort of capitalist. Take away the nasty, back-alley murders and they are living the American dream: building up mini corporate empires and reaping the profits.

We’re less than a week away from the next gangster movie epic: "Public Enemies," which opens in theaters Wednesday. Attracting the talents of such considerable film artists as director Michael Mann and actors Johnny Depp and Christian Bale it’s clear that gangsters remain as fascinating a force today as they were for the authors and filmmakers of a century ago.

What’s different this time around, however, is that "Public Enemies" focuses on not just one, but two emerging power structures. Less a claustrophobic view of the mafia power structure ("The Godfather"), "Public Enemies" is about a clash of two titans in the public sphere: bank robber John Dillinger (Depp) who wanted to be the renegade celebrity of his time, and J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), who brought all his forces to bear in his hunt for Dillinger because he was convinced that this was the case that could legitimize and nationalize the FBI.

It’s a face-off of epic proportions, but hardly the first. Here’s a quick look back at the evolution of the movie gangster:

Scarface
(1932)

More people are familiar with the 1983 remake starring Al Pacino, but the very first "Scarface," released in 1928, was a bleak affair. So, too, was the Howard Hawks remake in 1932, which viewed the gangster life as an apocalyptic one - a sure-fire path to the grave. Made back in the day when gangs and mafia kingpins really did rule with an iron fist, this was a movie that reflected its era.

The Public Enemy
(1931)

It’s truly shocking to go back and rent "The Public Enemy" some 77 years after it was first released. This is an intense, vicious, fierce movie - and it comes as a surprise how very little about this old-time movie seems soft or dated. It stars James Cagney as an up-and-comer in Chicago, working his way through the ranks of gangsters even as a murder threatens to unleash havoc amid those in the underground community. Cagney is cool and calculating, and downright nefarious when he needs to be. We can smell the smoke, and feel the ferocity of the time period.

Kiss Me Deadly
(1955)

One of my personal favorites, "Kiss Me Deadly" brought gangsters and the film noir genre into the nuclear age. Mike Hammer was a firebrand of a private eye, quick to fire off the first punch or the first bullet. And in "Kiss Me Deadly," a mysterious hitchhiker draws him into a web of violence and mystery, as everyone seems determined to take possession of a mysterious suitcase that glows whenever you open it (it was the inspiration behind the golden glowing suitcase in Quentin Tarantino’s "Pulp Fiction.")

The Godfather Part II - The Coppola Restoration
(1974)

Francis Ford Coppola was brilliant in the way he structured this sequel to "The Godfather," paralleling a modern-day story starring Al Pacino with a turn-of-the-century subplot involving Robert De Niro (playing Pacino’s father when still a young man). Establishing friendships with local businessmen, stocking up favors and slowly starting to exert his influence among the establishment, we come to see the way that thughood can be a grass-roots affair. Forget tyrant, De Niro is almost a populist in the way he helps the community and earns their undying allegiance in the process.

Road to Perdition (Widescreen Edition)
(2002)

A modern and moody spin on the standard gangster thriller, "Road to Perdition" went beyond the blood and the testosterone to offer us a wave of sincere emotion beneath the surface. Paul Newman plays the Chicago mob boss in 1931, and Tom Hanks works for him directly. Hanks’ world is flipped upside down when his son follows him one night and witnesses what daddy does for a living. More than just about a gangster ruling with an iron fist, "Road to Perdition" poses the question of whether violence is truly manly, or if it’s a weak man’s attempt to provide for a family. And as Hanks shares his trade with his son, we see the way that bad traditions are passed down through the generations, a cycle of dark despair.

Heat
(1995)

It’s also worth taking a moment to acknowledge the last gangster movie that was made by "Public Enemies" director Michael Mann. "Heat" viewed the gangster and the cop as equals, with Al Pacino in the part of the detective and Robert De Niro in the part of the master criminal. Sitting down to coffee as they try to intimidate - and relate to - one another, "Heat" is less about good and evil, crime and justice, than about seeing the men of the law and the men of the shadows as two personas cut from the same cloth. Both are obsessed, vigilant, and cut-throat; "Heat" is truly one of the great thrillers.

Thanks to Steven Snyder

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Public Enemies Trailer

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Johnny Depp Attends the Chicago Premiere of "Public Enemies"

Less than four miles from the Lincoln Park theater where the hunt for John Dillinger ended, a crowd of about 600 waited to get a glimpse of Johnny Depp -- who portrays the notorious bank robber in "Public Enemies."

Depp walked the red carpet for the film's Chicago premiere on Thursday along with fellow "Enemies" stars Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard, and director and Humboldt Park native Michael Mann.

Parts of the movie were filmed last year at the actual Chicago locations Dillinger visited, including the front of the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue, where he was gunned down.

Depp was the last of the cast to arrive. Once he stepped out of the car, some of the crowd broke into high-pitched screaming, while others chanted "Johnny."

"It's nice to be able to come back here and say 'Thank you,' and this shindig is a way of doing it," said Depp.

While in Chicago the 46-year-old actor, as is traditional for out-of-towners, visited Wrigley Field. "It was mostly for fun," said Depp, who signed autographs for fans after speaking to the media. "It was great to go and see the Cubs and experience that. That was classic Dillinger ... He was a big Cubs fan."

Depp's rival in the film, Bale, is no stranger to Chicago after filming " Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" here. Bale said his favorite place to visit in the city was Millenium Park.

As for his F.B.I. character who tracks Dillinger down, Bale said he is a "good guy" in the film. "It's a Dillinger movie," said Bale. "Whether it's legend or not, Dillinger was a charismatic man. He was being cheered for back then and I'm sure it will happen again now with all the fat cat factors everyone is dealing with nowadays."

Thanks to Luis Arroyave

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Goodfellas Tribute by The Simpsons

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Frank Vincent Defends "Protection" Commercials after Miller Lite Orders the Ads Whacked

MillerCoors executives just announced they are pulling the Miller Lite “Protection” commercials that have been broadcast for the last month in a national television campaign for the beer company.

The spots are being pulled in response to protest from representatives of the Italian-American community. In the commercials, Frank Vincent (“The Sopranos”) and his sidekick, Mike Starr (“Dumb & Dumber”), play mobsters who offer a store clerk and bartender “protection.” The employees tell them “no thanks,” because they have all the protection they need with Miller Lite’s taste protector lid. Italian music plays in the background, and the actors wear the typical Mafioso attire. The commercials were created by Chicago-based ad agency DraftFCB.

"We seem to be the last breed in America that ad agencies think they can take a shot at," said Lou Rago, founder of the Italian American Human Relations Foundation of Chicago. On Monday, Rago and Anthony Baratta, the Chicago-based national chairperson for the Commission for Social Justice, had a conference call with MillerCoors executives. Initially, the beer company agreed to run fewer “Protection” commercials. But when Rago and Baratta threatened a national boycott of Miller products by Italian-Americans, the executives agreed to pull the ads within a week.

The controversy hit headlines on Wednesday, June 3rd when the Chicago Sun-Times broke the news. Frank Vincent received a Google alert notifying him about the article, and felt compelled to offer his side of the story. “I think both of these groups should have a better sense of humor,” Vincent told the Sun-Times. “The humor is there in the commercials, and a lot of people were enjoying the work.”

Vincent also went on The Roe Conn Show on WLS AM Wednesday afternoon to discuss the controversy with Roe Conn. When asked if he was perpetuating a stereotype, Frank said he didn’t think so, “Because it’s a character, I’m an actor. I’ve played good guys, I’ve played cops, I’ve played bad guys. I’m acting.” Vincent said.

Frank argued that the mob is not just synonymous with Italian-Americans. History has proven that many different ethnicities have all run organized crime outfits. He wonders why these Italian-American organizations have singled out the Miller Lite commercials. “How about Bugsy, how about all the gangster movies in the 30s and 40s, when they depicted all the original gangsters that came here. The Jews, and the Germans, and the Irish…this argument can go on forever and ever.”

Vincent and Starr both star in the soon-to-be released film “Chicago Overcoat”, filmed by local film production company Beverly Ridge Pictures. The movie also stars Armand Assante (“American Gangster”), Kathrine Narducci (“The Sopranos”), Stacy Keach (“Mike Hammer: Private Eye”) and local actor Danny Goldring (“The Dark Knight”). Vincent looks forward to returning to Chicago to attend the film’s world premiere later this year.

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Twilight Star, Robert Pattinson" to Play Gangster Joe Gallo?

Harvey Weinstein is keen to sign up 'Twilight' star Robert Pattinson to appear in his next movie, a biopic of Mafia gangster Joe Gallo. Although Leonardo DiCaprio is also in the running for the part, Weinstein - who is making the film adaption of Tom Folsom’s book 'The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo and the Revolution at the Edge of the Underworld' - made it clear he wants the 'Twilight' heartthrob taking the reins. He said: “Rob Pattinson, I made him kiss girls in Cannes. He’s the most charming, wonderful young man. He really cared about the charity, and that’s not an easy thing to do. That’s a sweet, sweetheart thing to do. And then we got two bids.”

Thanks to Bild

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"McMafia" Nabs Movie Deal

"McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld," Mischa Glenny's sprawling book about organized crime around the world, has landed a movie deal.

London- and Los Angeles-based production company Working Title Films has acquired rights to the book.

Glenny, an expert on global affairs, focuses on the network of mob criminals in places as diverse as Mumbai, Johannesburg and Eastern Europe. These players, he writes, operate illegal businesses ranging from drug smuggling to human trafficking, in operations that account for roughly one-fifth of the world's economy.

With its globalist themes, the book is said to be something of an underworld equivalent of Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

Nonfiction fare that lacks a central character or story line typically has been considered difficult to adapt to the screen. Nonetheless, such tomes as Michael Lewis' baseball study Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game and Malcolm Gladwell's decision-making exploration Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking are in development at major studios and production banners.

Thanks to Steven Zeitchik

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"Gomorra" and "Il Divo" Win at Cannes, Draw Mob Crowds in Italy

This is the year of the mafia—at least at the box office.

Two films on organized crime in Italy, each fact-based melodramas, took top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival in May and are drawing packed audiences here. The Italian movie industry was giddy over the double win.

"Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System," the film adaptation of a diary-like book by journalist Roberto Saviano that focuses on the Naples-based mob known as Camorra, took home Cannes' grand prize. "Il Divo," a film directed by Paolo Sorrentino, won the jury honor for its original portrayal and analysis of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.

Sorrentino, a 38-year-old native of Naples, said he spent years contemplating how to explore Andreotti, a towering figure in Italian politics whose career was shadowed by suspicions of connections to the Sicilian-based Cosa Nostra. "It's such a provocative subject," he said during an interview in the Rome office of his film distributor.

The longtime prime minister faced criminal charges over the killing of a journalist who wrote that Andreotti had mafia ties and was implicated in the notorious kidnap-murder of politician Aldo Moro. Andreotti denied all charges. Over time, he was acquitted then convicted on appeal. Then that conviction was annulled. He remains a senator for life.

Andreotti's story has tantalized the Italian public—and perhaps any society ready to examine how a power class maintains itself, Sorrentino said. The film also opened the same month as the 30th anniversary of Moro's death, a time when dozens of new books are looking back on the scandalous killing.

"It's not something of the past," Sorrentino said of "Il Divo." "It's of today and tomorrow. Within power, criminal organizations have a place. ... The Italian state fights it, but on different tracks."

Both "Il Divo" and "Gomorra," directed by Matteo Garrone, have triggered discussions about the relentless criminality of Italian society.

"Italians are tired of not knowing," Sorrentino said of the films' popularity. "They want to know the mechanisms of power in Italy. In America, scandals and secrets at the top powers? In time, the truth comes out.

"In Italy, the truth never comes out."

Thanks to Christine Spolar

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Gangster Film "Chicago Overcoat" Wraps 2nd Unit Photography Around the City

The indie gangster film “Chicago Overcoat” just finished shooting 2nd unit photography from the end of April though the first week of May. The production flew stars Frank Vincent ("Raging Bull," “Casino,” “The Sopranos”) and Mike Starr (“Goodfellas,” “Dumb and Dumber,” "Ed Wood") back for some scenes. In addition, Chicago actor Danny Goldring (“The Fugitive,” “Batman: The Dark Knight”) came back for one more day of filming.

FRANK VINCENT plays Lou Marazano, an aging hit man who takes on one last job for the Chicago Outfit to secure his retirement and get a piece of the glory days.

MIKE STARR plays Lorenzo Galante, a loud-mouthed, street boss who will do
whatever it takes to seize power in the family.

DANNY GOLDRING plays Chicago homicide detective Ralph Maloney, a bitter, cantankerous old alcoholic, obsessed with solving a case that's haunted him for 20 years.

The production shot all over Chicago, filming the skyline, establishing shots, and some other extra shots for the film. Some notable locations include: The Italian Village, Franco's Ristorante, Emmett's Irish Pub, and Al Capone's old hang out, The Green Mill. The production also shot in many of Chicago's diverse neighborhoods, including The Loop, Pilsen, Bridgeport, and Logan Square.

Also starring are Armand Assante ("Gotti," "American Gangster"), Stacy Keach ("American History X," "Prison Break") and Kathrine Narducci ("A Bronx Tale," "The Sopranos"). Beverly Ridge Pictures is aiming for a Sundance world premiere for “Chicago Overcoat,” then bringing the film back to Chicago for a local premiere. For more information go to: Beverly Ridge Pictures.

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Widowed Alyssa Milano Works for Mafia in "Wisegal"

Here’s a news flash - things don’t work out so well when you get involved with the mob.

Yet screenwriters can’t seem to stop themselves from spinning gangster tales. There’s nothing particularly new about “Wisegal,” on Lifetime.

Alyssa Milano stars as Patty Montanari, a widowed mother of two young boys. Unable to pay her bills, Patty begins working for the Mafia - first by selling tax-free cigarettes, then by turning a failing mob-owned restaurant into a successful nightclub.

Along the way, she falls for married gangster Frank Russo (Jason Gedrick). Mob boss Salvatore Palmeri (James Caan) makes Patty a promise - he will provide for her family forever if she transports a half-million dollars across the Canadian border.

Even though “Wisegal” is based on a true story, any savvy TV viewer could write what happens next. Heck, anyone who caught 15 minutes of any “Sopranos” episode can forecast how this story will unfold. And writer Shelley Evans seems to know that. Her script often skips key points of exposition. Without explanation, Frank’s son Mouse (Zak Longo) is involved in drugs and this is a huge problem for the mob. Suddenly Frank is a violent threat to Patty and her family.

It may be predictable, but the movie is backed by creditability. Joseph Pistone, the real-life FBI agent who inflitrated the mob as Donnie Brasco, and Anthony Melchiorri, Patty’s real-life son, are executive producers. Melchiorri pays homage to his mother but doesn’t justify her actions. “These people helped me. I made them my family. I knew what I was doing,” Patty tells an FBI agent.

The acting imbues the movie with a higher level of quality. Milano (“Charmed,” “My Name is Earl”) is an extremely likable TV presence. Sporting her best New York accent (probably last heard when she played Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher in the 1993 TV movie “Casualties of Love”), she brings Patty’s scrappy determination to life.

Caan, who knows a thing or two about mob movies, has the right amount of benevolent malice. And Gedrick does a lot with his extremely underwritten role. So while “Wisegal” might not be anything new, it’s a perfectly entertaining way to spend a Saturday night.

Thanks to Amy Amatangelo

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Mob Mentality at the Movies

The nearly concurrent DVD releases of Alberto Lattuada's "Mafioso - Criterion Collection, and Marco Turco's "Excellent Cadavers," from First Run, make for a discerningly complementary treatment of the Sicilian Mafia as an indestructible force of evil. Americans have adopted mobsters as cultural house pets — as urban outlaws, dapper rogues, or House of Atreus incendiaries, depending on one's metaphorical preference. These two films — a dark comedy from 1962 featuring a perfectly judged performance by Alberto Sordi and a documentary from 2005 — go beyond catchphrases and soap opera to capture the chilling reality of an institution that appears to be as secure as the church, even though for a long time it was hardly acknowledged at all.

Mafia movies, like mafia prosecutions, were redefined in the 1950s by two commissions. First, the 1951 televised Kefauver Committee hearings concluded that organized crime existed, despite suspiciously stubborn denials by the FBI. The stars of the proceedings were Frank Costello's hands. The mob boss had somehow convinced the committee and the broadcaster not to show his face. A better symbol for the manipulations of an invisible puppeteer could not have been invented.

The cinematic response was instantaneous, as a slew of films appeared about the secret empire. Unlike the crime films of the 1930s, which focused on individuals, these films looked at a larger enterprise: "The Enforcer," "The Big Heat," "On the Waterfront (Special Edition)," "The Big Combo," "The Miami Story," "The Phenix City Story," "The Brothers Rico," "Chicago Confidential," "New York Confidential," "The Garment Center," and dozens more. They often avoided ethnicity, steered clear of the word "mafia," and usually ended with Mr. Big taking a fall. "I'm glad what I done to you," Terry Malloy chided Johnny Friendly in "On the Waterfront" — all it took was a stand-up guy. Even so, J. Edgar Hoover persisted in characterizing the mob as a chimera, unlike the bank robbers he had dispatched in the happier days of the Depression. Even Hoover had to moonwalk, however, after the mob bosses convened their own 1957 commission in Apalachin. Local police intruded, sending made men scurrying into the nearby woods. Denial was no longer an option, though it was the Treasury Department's Bureau of Narcotics, not the FBI, which soon compiled the first bestiary of connected men, published only last year as "Mafia."

This time the cinematic response was more violent and morally baroque, animated by realism that the Production Code could not entirely repeal. Richard Widmark (in 1947's "Kiss of Death") and Eli Wallach (in 1958's "The Lineup") played psychopaths who push wheelchair-bound seniors to their deaths. In the first film, the victim is a harmless woman, and the death of the predator restores social order; in the second, the victim is a kingpin, and the death of the hit man who pushes him over the railing of a skating rink resolves nothing. Richard Wilson's "Pay or Die" (1960) tells the true story of the fearless Italian-American cop who visited Sicily in 1909 seeking information to expose the secret society. He was promptly assassinated: end of story.

The Italian film industry, which had ignored the Mafia to this point, now began to acknowledge its barbarity, if somewhat obliquely. In the late 1950s, Francesco Rosi began his career by exploring the rituals of organized crime in "La Sfida" (shot in Naples for fear of offending Sicilians) and the bumbling "I Magliari" (starring Sordi). He found a voice of his own in "Salvatore Giuliano" (1962), using documentary meticulousness to trace the rise of a mob chieftain in the postwar years as the Allies cemented a Mafia-government coalition — a theme briefly explored in "Excellent Cadavers."

That same year, Sicily's underground was further breached in two comedies set in the present: Pietro Germi's flat-out hilarious "Divorce Italian Style," in which the rule of the dons is a given and pandemic bloodlust is played out in a burlesque of marital honor; and Lattuada's "Mafioso," in which the comic elements are, at first, disarmingly unclear. If "The Godfather" is a bloody epic that leaves residual recollections of star-powered romance, nostalgia, and wit, "Mafioso" is a comedy of manners that leaves the chill of unappeased horror. It drolly meanders for half its running time, a beautifully played character study without urgent direction. The viewer is encouraged to feel superior to the naïve Nino, until Nino and viewer alike are placed in the dark — a plane's cargo hold, en route to New York to commit a crime for which neither he nor we are quite prepared.

Lattuada makes clear from the beginning that Mafia tentacles reach well into the north. Nino has lived in Milan for eight years as an efficiency expert in a factory. He now chooses to take a long-delayed vacation, bringing his wife and children to meet his family in his native Sicily. His boss gives him a package to be hand-delivered to Don Vincenzo (Ugo Attanasio), which turns out to be an American-made golden heart that will adorn the church's Madonna and also contains coded instructions for a death warrant.

Nino is a fish out of water (except in the zone afforded by his family and by vanity), never more so than when shipped to New York, oily and overdressed — though he briefly feels at home as he looks up at the astonishing skyscrapers and sees a poster for a Sophia Loren film. The favor Don Vincenzo demands of him is filmed as a dream, a few hours on the other side of the looking glass. Nino and we know virtually nothing of his target, but the deed is compromising all around. "Mafioso" is built like a snare, supported by the sumptuous photography of Armando Nannuzzi and a wonderfully mottled score by Piero Piccioni, who mixes idioms and underscores ill omens with electrical rumbling.

"Excellent Cadavers" is not for the faint of heart or the cheery of disposition. It argues that the Mafia, which, during a two-year period in the early 1980s, left 300 slaughtered bodies on the streets of Palermo, could be eradicated. It almost was, according to Mr. Turco, when two magistrates, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, combined to launch the maxi-trial that placed more than 400 Mafia suspects before a judge and, despite interference by the Italian government, ultimately won convictions. The reprisals were swift. In 1992, Falcone and Borsellino were murdered, months apart, in explosions that observers likened to nuclear blasts. Silvio Berlusconi's government then undid much of what had been accomplished, even dismantling the witness protection program. Today the mafia is said to extort tributes from 80% of Sicilian businesses, to say nothing of its role in the international heroin trade.

Much of the archival footage in "Excellent Cadavers" is astonishing, including dozens of photographs by Letizia Battaglia, who appears on camera at 70 and recalls the almost daily calls to various murder sites. Her pictures of bodies surrounded by grieving widows and curious onlookers are horrific; in one, a severed head is set upon a car seat. So much of the film is admirable that its missteps are especially regrettable. Mr. Turco's film is based on a book by Alexander Stille, who is inexplicably on camera throughout, lugging a shoulder bag, occasionally pretending to read or write. He also serves as narrator and lacks authority in the role. He doesn't even explain the title, which is mob slang for the bodies of political officials.

Yet the film tells a complicated story, involving a great many names (First Run ought to have provided a dramatis personae); it is coherent and dramatically sound. Falcone and Borsellino emerge as genuine heroes. Asked if he is afraid, Falcone, who looks disconcertingly like Alberto Sordi, says, "Living with one's fear, without being conditioned by it, that's courage. Otherwise, it's not courage but recklessness." "Excellent Cadavers" is one of the saddest films I've ever seen.

Thanks to Gary Giddins. Mr. Giddins is the author of "Natural Selection: Gary Giddins on Comedy, Film, Music, and Books."

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Chased by the Mob in "3 Days Gone"

Director Scott McCullough has completed his first feature film. 3 Days Gone is a thriller about a man who wakes up after being buried alive for three days to find that he is being pursued by the mob and is a suspect in the murder of his best friend.

The film stars Michelle Stafford, a winner of two Emmy Awards for her role on The Young and the Restless, and Chrisopher Backus, who has appeared on such shows as The O.C. and Will & Grace. The producers have already sold rights to the moviefor several markets and are planning to put the film out on the festival circuit as they seek a theatrical distributor.

McCullough became involved in the project through writers/producers Oliver Coltress and Charles Wesley. The director said that he was attracted by the quality of the script. “When this opportunity came up, I was excited,” McCullough said. “The quality of the script also allowed us to get some actors we wouldn’t otherwise have had. We had five or six hundred submissions for each role. My experience in commercials also helped.” Casting was done by Michael Sanford of Sanford Casting.

McCullough shot the film in Los Angeles in just 12 days, covering an average of more than eight pages of script and an average of 40 set-ups per day. The director used the new Red One digital cinema camera in the production, shooting in 4K resolution. It was his first time using the system, and he came away favorably impressed. “The footage looks great,” he said. “I was able to use the lenses that I like from 35mm film and it generated very crisp images.”

“Only a handful of feature films have been shot with the Red One and originate in 4K resolution,” McCullough added. “It’s the cutting edge of filmmaking today.”

Making a feature film on a modest budget is not, however, without challenges. On several occasions shooting locations fell through at the last minute forcing the director to improvise. McCullough said that his experience in directing commercials and music videos helped him overcome such obstacles. “You have to be willing to work with some uncertainty because the actors are depending on you and the producers are depending on you,” he observed. “I’ve been in those situations before and I have the experience to know what I want to shoot, how to set up quickly, be decisive and get what I need without wasting time.”

Despite the lack of an expansive budget, McCullough found the experience of shooting a long narrative story enervating. “Working with the actors was very rewarding,” he said. “I do a lot of car commercials and don’t often get a lot of lines of dialogue. Having the opportunity to shoot eight or even 14 pages of script in a day and having the actors respond to me was great. I loved it.”

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