Taglines: It all begin with a car.
Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) has discovered there’s no line he won’t cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children.
And Clarence “Tango” Butler (Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn’s most infamous drug dealers. With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world’s most difficult jobs.
When NYPD’s Operation Clean Up targets the notoriously drug-ridden BK housing project, all three officers find themselves swept away by the violence and corruption of Brooklyn’s gritty 65th Precinct and its most treacherous criminals. During seven fateful days, Eddie, Sal and Tango find themselves hurtling inextricably toward the same fatal crime scene and a shattering collision with destiny.
Michael C. Martin, a New York City transit worker, needed a new ride when his old one was totaled in an accident. Sidelined by injuries he suffered in the crash, Martin was casting about for ideas to raise the cash he sorely needed when he discovered a screenwriting contest online with a $10,000 first prize. Although he had never written a film script before, he thought the contest might be his ticket to a new automobile.
Martin followed the advice so many novice writers are given: Write what you know. Born and raised in the Brooklyn projects, he set his script there and started with an idea based on a story he heard from a friend. The result was Brooklyn’s Finest, a well-constructed tale about three police officers working out of the toughest precinct in the toughest borough of New York City.
Martin finished his script on the day of the contest deadline and submitted it in person. “About a month later I got a phone call saying I was a finalist,” he says. “I was going to get the car!”
But that’s not exactly the way it turned out. Martin did not win the contest or get a car, but his runner-up status attracted the attention of Hollywood. “We were looking for someone to write a script for New Jack City 2,” Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures remembers.”Brooklynâ’s Finest was submitted to us as a writing sample.”
The script’s skillful handing of three separate but related narratives intrigued the producer. “It’s cleverly done,” Iwanyk says. “I really felt for all of these men and that set the script apart. Michael created completely different characters, but at the end of the movie, you realize they’re all hatched from the same egg.
“In the lexicon of cop movies, it feels epic,” says the producer. “I haven’t seen what I think is a great New York police drama in a long time. This feels like Lumet or Scorsese. It could be about Brooklyn or the Bronx or Queens or Manhattan. It takes place in 2009, and it feels like post-Giuliani New York.”
Iwanyk was an executive on the acclaimed 2001 film Training Day and was eager to work with the director, Antoine Fuqua, again. “I thought Brooklyn’s Finest and he were a perfect match, but I wasn’t sure he would want to make another movie about police officers so soon. Still, I sent it to him and he loved it He was the only director we ever discussed.”
In fact, Fuqua had always felt he had some unfinished business with the subject matter. “I really didn’t want to do another cop movie,” he says. “I’ve always tried not to get pigeonholed. But when I did Training Day, I was struck by the different pressures that civil servants, especially police officers, are under and how misunderstood they are. I thought Michael had found a new way into the subject. This is not about corrupt officers as much as it is about three people doomed by their own personal issues.”
Fuqua contacted the writer as soon as he read the script. “I think he was making sure I was the real deal,”says Martin. “We talked about the story and some casting ideas. Antoine clearly already had a vision for the film.
“Nobody could have directed it but Antoine,” he says. “He would tell me his ideas and we bounced back and forth. After he signed, we got Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere and Ellen Barkin. Everything just started moving immediately. Once the actors got involved, it developed even further.”
At about the same time, Millennium Films and John Langley Films joined the team that would bring Brooklyn’s Finest to the screen. “We decided almost immediately that we wanted to be involved in the movie,” says producer John Thompson of Millennium. “It doesn’t follow a formula or typify any specific genre. It is all very real.”
Thompson was shocked when he learned of the film’s pedigree. “I didn’t find out Michael was a first time screenwriter until later,” he says. “This is a one-time story. A guy who works for the MTA writes a screenplay and gets five A-list people immediately. It’s pretty incredible.”
“It’s a Horatio Alger story,” adds producer John Langley. “But if the screenplay was no good, it would mean nothing. This is an excellent screenplay. The writer captured a whole environment. It has some existential resonance. It has depth, it has texture you don’t normally encounter. And it’s highly entertaining.”
With the cast and producers in place, Fuqua and Martin set to work further developing the screenplay. First, they deconstructed the script, focusing on each individual police officer. “The three different stories hit on three different types of pressure that a police officer could be under that would cause them to make bad decisions,” Fuqua says. “To clarify each of them, we literally took the script and broke it down into thirds”one movie about each guy. That way I could look at each story in one fluid motion and not miss little nuances.”
Martin still wasn’t making plans to launch a Hollywood career. Initially, he didn’t even quit his Transit Authority job. He had to fit in quick cell phone conversations while working on the subway tracks. “I would be there with the train coming at me and I’d have to tell Antoine to hold on and wait for it to pass,” he recalls.
Eventually, the producers convinced him to resign and focus on screenwriting full-time. “He made the transition super fast, let me tell you.” says Thompson. “He was doing rewrites on set every day, and writing another script in his trailer. Now he’s flying to Hollywood for meetings.”
One of the biggest surprises for Martin was the amount the script changed as they worked on it. “When actors and directors come on board, they bring their own perspective to things,”says Iwanyk. “And locations, weather and budget can dictate what goes into the script. I think that was a bit shocking for him. Much of the stuff that changed in development was what the actors brought to the table.”
But that was okay with Martin, who says listening to actors of such high caliber speak his words was awe-inspiring. “When I heard Don and Ellen saying words I wrote, it blew me away. The script only got better as the actors responded to the material. Just to hear them exchange ideas was amazing.”
The resulting film bears Fuqua’s unmistakable stamp in its tone, look and style. “Antoine knew exactly what he wanted,” says Thompson. “We would look at the dailies and always be amazed at his understanding of the actors and his visual sense. Antoine and Patrick Murguia, the director of photography, created every shot to be part of a visual narrative, and a counterpoint to the action. It’s a very well-planned movie.”
All of that preparation and dedication pays off in the final product, says Langley. “He’s very focused. He wants what he wants and he goes for it. And I think that is exactly what a good director has to do. Antoine is an extremely talented guy. I don’t think there are many directors who can do a better urban crime drama than he can.”
“At the end of this movie, you’re going to feel like you were on the corner of Lavonia and Brooklyn hearing that subway,” says Iwanyk. “You’re going to empathize with these cops and with the criminals and gangsters. Audiences may feel uncomfortable with some of the sets, with some of the violence, with some of the racism, but they’re going to be compelled by.”
Brooklyn’s Finest (2010)
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring by: Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Shannon Kane, Jesse Williams, Ellen Barkin, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Brían F. O’Byrne, Raquel Castro, Armando Riesco, Reilly Brooke Stith
Screenplay by: Michael Martin
Production Design by: Thérèse DePrez
Cinematography by: Patrick Murguia
Film Editing by: Barbara Tulliver
Costume Design by: Juliet Polcsa
Set Decoration by: Mila Khalevich
Music by: Marcelo Zarvos
MPAA Rating: for bloody violence throughout, strong sexuality, nudity, drug content and pervasive language.
Distributed by: Overture Films
Release Date: March 5, 2010
