Release date: February 17, 1984
The Miami Beach scenes were actually filmed in St. Petersburg at the Don Cesar resort.
Sergio Leone: “So this adventure of Noodles, this dream, this search through time [] can only be [] a voyage induced by opium. Opium projects you more towards the future than to the past. Here I say it and here I deny it [] and may represent what the character imagines under effect of the drug.” Source / More (Book)
The movie is based on Harry Grey’s autobiographical novel, The Hoods Source / More (Book)
Director Leone can be seen as the ticket seller at the bus station.
Sergio Leone was offered the job of directing The Godfather, but refused, wanting to make his own gangster film, which eventually became Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Leone later regretted the decision.
In an interview to Entertainment Weekly, Jennifer Connely said she owed the role to the fact that her nose matched co-star Elizabeth McGovern’s.
Robert De Niro requested a private meeting with renowned crime boss, Meyer Lansky in preparation for his role as Noodles. The request was denied.
Initially the film started in a different way. Director Leone had written the first part with an American screenwriter who stole the story and sold it to John Frankenheimer. He made 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974) with it. Source / More (Book)
As children, Leone and composer Ennio Morricone were classmates
January 3, 1929
April 30, 1989
As the son of a film-industry pioneer, Leone entered Italian films at 18 and worked for years as an assistant to Italian directors as well as American directors.
Towards the end of the 1950s he started writing screenplays, and began directing after taking over The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) in mid-shoot after its original director fell ill. He chose The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) for his directing debut.
In 1964 Ennio single-handedly invented the "spaghetti Western" with A Fistful of Dollars his remake of Yojimbo starring Clint Eastwood. His next two films - For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - completed "The Dollars Trilogy", with each film being more financially successful than its predecessor. All three films featured remarkable scores by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
Finally, Leone in 1984 created his last masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America. The film is nearly four hours long, and was badly butchered for American release.
Christopher Frayling -> Sergio Leone: Something to Do With Death
Michael Carlson -> Sergio Leone (2001)
Oreste De Fornari and Charles Nopar -> Sergio Leone: The Great Italian Dream of Legendary America (1997)
Robert Cumbow -> Once Upon a Time (1991)
