Brooklyn's Finest: A New Take On NYPD

“I would be there with the train coming at me,” says Michael C. Martin, “and I would have to tell [the director] to call me back.” As a former flagger for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Michael C. Martin’s journey from subway worker to screenwriter is one of the many only-in-New-York stories behind Overture Films’ Brooklyn’s Finest. As a native of Brooklyn projects, Martin set the script in the Van Dyke Housing Community. The director, Antoine Fuqua, has childhood memories of standing on the sidelines while movies were filmed in his inner-city neighborhood. This influenced his approach to Brooklyn’s Finest. As a native of the South Bronx, Wesley Snipes--who plays Caz--says, “To be working around the kinds of places I was familiar with as a child is very special.”

In addition to Wesley Snipes (New Jack City, Passanger 57), Don Cheadle (Traffic, Hotel Rwanda) Richard Gere (Chicago, Pretty Woman) and Ethan Hawke (Gattica, Assault on Precinct 13) come together to form a quartet of powerhouse actors. Snipes’ cool performance as Caz, a recently released drug mogul, plays well against Cheadle’s angst-ridden character, Tango, an undercover cop with torn allegiances. In the role Eddie Dugan, a burnt-out cop 7 days from retirement, Gere is the embodiment of a flawed hero. Finally, as Sal Procida, a family man who makes the wrong decisions for the right reasons, Ethan Hawke captures this character’s desperation (which boarders on madness) and the “righter or wronger” theme that under grids the film.

Notable among the talented newcomers is Shannon Kane. Kane plays opposite Gere (Dugan) as Chantel, a young prostitute and Eddie Dugan’s confidante. “I’m kind of shy and sexually timid,” said Kane. As a former model and trained dancer, Kane’s role as a jaded hooker was a far reach from her work at Vogue and Glamour. To prepare her for this, Kane did research. “I went to my first strip club as research for the part,” she said. “I also talked to a couple of hookers and asked them how they manage to separate their minds from their bodies.”

The parallel narratives, and unconventional plot structure of Brooklyn’s Finest make it a stand out film. This, above all else, separates Brooklyn’s Finest from the cadre of New York cop movies. The film opens nationwide on March 5th.