Entertainment news and discussion on TalkFuse.
In 1989, Al Pacino was sued for $6,000,000 after he quit a movie. Four years later, he made it with someone else
Al Pacino withdrew from a planned late-1980s adaptation of *Carlito’s Way* after working on it with producer Elliott Kastner for more than a year. Kastner sued him in 1989, seeking $6 million, but the case was later dropped; Pacino eventually returned to the role in a 1993 film made with producer Martin Bregman and director Brian De Palma.
Pacino had first become interested in Edwin Torres’s novel after meeting the judge at a New York gym in 1973. Kastner said he had spent about $1 million developing the abandoned project, including hiring Marlon Brando, and sought a further $5 million in damages. Pacino resumed acting with *Sea of Love*, then starred in several films before *Carlito’s Way* reached cinemas; the film initially had a mixed reception but later became a cult favourite.
In short
- Pacino quit an early *Carlito’s Way* adaptation.
- Producer Elliott Kastner sued for $6 million in 1989.
- Pacino made the film with De Palma in 1993.
Explained simply
Carlito’s Way is a crime novel by Edwin Torres, set among New York’s Puerto Rican community and centred on Carlito Brigante, a former criminal trying to change his life. Al Pacino became interested in playing Carlito after meeting Torres, who was a judge, at a New York gym in 1973.
Producer Elliott Kastner spent more than a year developing a film adaptation with Pacino, but the project was abandoned. Pacino later made a different adaptation with producer Martin Bregman and director Brian De Palma, released in 1993. The story matters because the same novel led to two separate film projects, and the later film became better regarded over time.