American Gangster releases in theatres on Friday, November 2, 2007. The film shot in New York City from July 2006 - November 2006.

In the early 70’s police corruption was rampant in New York City.  The New York mob had a stranglehold on the heroin trade and was reaping millions from soldiers who, while in Vietnam, became addicted to the opiate.  Until a black entrepreneur named Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) took over the trade, flooding the streets with a purer product at a better price.  Hard-nosed cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is close enough to the streets to feel this shift of control in the drug underworld, and he starts to suspect that an African-American power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene.  The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation that will not only change their lives, but alter the destiny of an entire generation of New York City.

American Gangster was filmed in NYC because Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts’ stories are truly New York stories.  In fact, the real Frank Lucas was on set nearly every day Denzel Washington worked.  Additionally, transforming the city to what it looked like in the early 1970’s was something that enticed production designer Arthur Max.  He found that, while parts of Harlem had changed much since the days of Frank Lucas, he could capture the look and feel of the neighborhood of the period by shooting 20 blocks north of Lucas’ infamous 116th street headquarters, filming on 136th street and switching street signs to complete the look. 

While the production relocated almost daily – if not several times daily – one of the lengthiest stays was at the Governors Island location, to which the crew ferried each morning for almost a week.  The island, a few miles across New York Harbor from the Statue of Liberty, is a former army barracks and training base that transferred from U.S. government hands back to New York State in 2003.  The high-rise buildings that once housed military personnel have been vacant ever since.  These apartments served the production for several interior sets, including Lucas’ famous heroin-cutting den and the housing project in which the final drug busts take place.  For exterior shots, the Marlboro Projects in the Gravesend section of South Brooklyn provided visuals of the 28 buildings that offer low-cost housing to 1,700 families.

The film stars Denzel Washington, who shot Inside Man and The Manchurian Candidate in NYC and Russell Crowe, who shot A Beautiful Mind in NYC.

The film shot on location in New York City at:

A grocery store on Westchester Avenue and East 156th street in the Bronx

Club Social Vida on East 161st Street in the Bronx

Fort Washington Avenue by the George Washington Bridge entrance

Bowling Alley on Bronxdale Avenue in the Bronx

St. Peter & Paul Church Parish Center

Universal Bronze and Steel Company on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Navy Yard

Brooklyn Supreme Courthouse