The creator of Narcos is also involved.
In terms of memorable opening scenes, they don’t get much better than Denzel Washington dousing his enemy in petrol before lighting him on fire and riddling his body with bullets. Welcome to American Gangster, Ridley Scott’s tough and uncompromising take on Frank Lucas’ life.
In case you haven’t seen the film, in 1970s America, a detective (Russell Crowe) works to bring down the drug empire of Frank Lucas, a heroin kingpin from New York, who is smuggling the drug into the country from the Far East.
Based on a true story, Frank Lucas’ rise to power as a drug trafficker was one of the most notorious and violent stories around, so it’s fitting that the co-creator of Narcos, Chris Brancato, is involved with this new show.
In an interview with Screen International, Brancato said that he’s working on a new show that’s closely affiliated with American Gangster, but there’s one key difference.
Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker is on board to play mob boss Bumpy Johnson in The Godfather Of Harlem. The TV show will be set in the years before Denzel Washington’s Frank Lucas burst on to the New York crime scene.
During his life, Johnson was arrested more than 40 times and eventually served three prison terms for narcotics-related charges.
“It’s Harlem, the 1960s, a gangster named Bumpy Johnson was very close friends with Malcolm X, so the show is about the collision of the criminal underworld and the civil rights movement. It’s an opportunity to examine some of the things that are going on racially right now but through the prism of the past. The show will be set around five years before Gangster,” says Brancato.
Kendrick Lamar has also been sounded out to create the music for the series.
Given how well Brancato did in retelling Pablo Escobar’s story in Narcos, we’re very curious to see what he can do with The Godfather Of Harlem.
