American Gangster Movie

THE third time turned out to be the charm for "American Gangster." The thriller had fallen apart twice at Universal before production eventually began last year. When it was last canceled in 2005 because of cost concerns, Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer ("A Beautiful Mind") says, he had to "gather the energy" to revive the project. "It was so much harder than anything I have tried to do in my professional life," he says of the film.

As a teenager visiting Harlem, Denzel Washington never came across drug lord Frank Lucas in person. But Washington certainly saw the human wreckage that Lucas helped create, especially along 116th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. ? "There were junkies everywhere," Washington says. "The neighborhood was destroyed by people like Frank Lucas." ? To lay waste to so many lives, Lucas had to have possessed incredible power.

The upcoming movie, "American Gangster," is a gripping real-life story about a Harlem drug kingpin who in the '70s smuggled heroin out of Southeast Asia in the caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam. The plot is dense, with lots of twists and turns. So is the saga of the movie's three lives. Fraught with emotional trauma, crushed egos, humiliation and passion, the movie's tortured journey to the big screen was unusual even by Hollywood standards.

As anyone acquainted with 2005's indie movie sensation "Hustle & Flow" -- and its Oscar-winning hip-hop anthem -- will tell you, it's hard out here for a pimp. But for a heavily armed, cool-as-ice international heroin trafficker? Totally different story. Heading into multiplexes in wide release this weekend, Ridley Scott's gritty '70s drug-dealer epic, "American Gangster," is on point to dominate the box office, according to pre-polling known as "tracking" and various industry sources.

"SEE, that's Fort Greene right there, the projects, and I went to school right here -- this is George Westinghouse," says Jay-Z, looking through the window of his gray Rolls-Royce as it chauffeurs him into his past. "Marcy Projects is about five minutes straight down," he says, pointing east toward the housing development where he lived as a youth. "See that? That's one thing I liked about going to school here," he adds with a smile, indicating a road sign that reads "Jay St."

After picketing for a week, Writers Guild of America members had reason to look forward to Saturday night: A free "American Gangster" screening at the WGA's theater, followed by what promised to be a lively conversation with the film's Oscar-winning screenwriter, Steven Zaillian. But rather than hear from Zaillian at the film's conclusion, the more than 400 WGA members were told that he was skipping the Beverly Hills question-and-answer segment because of the strike.