Martin Scorsese was done with mob movies. He’d said everything he needed to say in Mean Streets and Raging Bull, and he had no intention of going back. Then he found Nicholas Pileggi’s book WISE GUYS in galley form on the set of The Color of Money. Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in.
This is the story of how Goodfellas got made: from Tom Cruise’s almost-casting, to paying off real-life mafiosos as consultants, how the story was stitched together in the edit bay as if it were one long trailer, and finally, its awards-circuit hot streak that stopped cold, just short of Oscar glory.
The full audio-only episode — including Goodfellas’ lasting influence on The Sopranos, Boogie Nights, and Tarantino — is available exclusively for Patreon subscribers.
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