He Puts Out Mob Hits

IN Hollywood, if you want to make a movie about gangsters, the man to see is Nicholas Pileggi. After spending years covering crime as a journalist, Pileggi wrote "Wiseguy," a portrait of a young mobster's rise to prominence that he adapted into Martin Scorsese's 1990 film, "Goodfellas." Pileggi went on to write "Casino" for Scorsese, which chronicled the saga of the mob's move to Las Vegas.

Pileggi, who is married to writer-director Nora Ephron, has returned to the gangland beat as the executive producer of "American Gangster," a Ridley Scott film that features Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas, a cool, calculating Harlem drug lord who ran the heroin trade in early 1970s New York.

The real Lucas has been a friend and source for Pileggi over the years, as have the cops who put Lucas behind bars.

Where did this lifelong fascination with gangsters come from?

I grew up in Bensonhurst, which people tended to view as a mob neighborhood.

I always thought of myself not so much as an investigative reporter, but as Margaret Mead. I just wanted to figure these guys out. How could they triple park their cars in front of a fire hydrant and never get a ticket? Some kids were interested in baseball statistics. I was interested in mobsters.

How'd you first meet Frank Lucas?

Back in 1980, a couple of federal agents called me and said, "We've got this guy in the correction center who you've got to meet. He's got an unbelievable story to tell."

At the time, Frank was facing 70 years in prison and so I started going down there to talk. That's where you get your real stories. You don't get 'em from the good guys.

And when Frank got out of prison you started talking again?

And the more we talked, the more I thought it was a movie, especially when it turned out that Richie Roberts, the cop who put him away, was his best friend and helping put Frank's kids through private school. I couldn't get any traction on selling the story, so I introduced Frank to Mark Jacobson, who did a fabulous piece about him in New York magazine.

That was the story that got Brian Grazer to buy the movie rights and hire Steve Zaillian to write the script.

But why didn't you want to write it yourself?

I got Frank and Richie on a plane and we made a presentation to Grazer but I was contractually obligated to other projects.