[sailorjohn]

Casino-Nicholas Pileggi

Kinda torn by choosing between the movie and the book, watching the extras on the dvd was stunned to discover that Pileggi wrote the screenplay for the movie before he started the book, and was slammed finishing the book to coincide with the release of the movie. The book might not have ever been written if not for the movie, Pileggi was not getting any cooperation from the main character in the book, Frank Rosenthal-Ace Rothstein in the movie. Rosenthal had read about the project in 'Variety', and when he found out DeNiro was going to play the Ace character, he was more than happy to cooperate saying that DeNiro was the 'finest actor of his generation' And DeNiro agreed to meet Rosenthal to seal the deal. The book is a fascinating read about Vegas, the Teamsters, the Mafia, and how it all imploded.