Lorenzo Carcaterra first broke out with his autobiographical book Sleepers which was later made into a movie starring Brad Pitt, Jason Patric and Robert De Niro. Since then hes written five other novels and worked on tons of television including Law & Order.
His most recent book is Paradise City which tells the story of Giancarlo Lo Manto an American born detective that now is on the Naples police force, homicide division, and the most dangerous beat in Europe. But back in New York City, Pete Rossi, the son of Don Nicola, has decided to bring Gian back to Americapermanently.
Check out the official site for Lorenzo Carcaterra
Daniel Robert Epstein: I thought the pace of Paradise City was faster than your other books. Did you feel that way?
Lorenzo Carcaterra: Im so close to it that its hard for me to tell. It is a faster paced story I guess because cop stories tend to be faster. I thought my previous book, Street Boys, had to be slower because it was a four day battle and we wanted to give the flavor of each day. Paradise City had to move a bit faster because we go from Naples to New York.
DRE: Some critics were saying maybe it was because you just started working on Law & Order right about the time of doing this book.
LC: Well I started working in TV in 1990 on a show called Top Cops. That ran on CBS from 91 to 94. Ive always done scripts for TV or movies when I was writing a book. I like to do a bunch of different things at the same time.
DRE: So it was just a coincidence?
LC: Yeah because I had planned to do Paradise City even before Street Boys. While I was doing Street Boys I wrote a script for Barry Levinson, Drew Barrymore and Johnny Depp called Dreamer about Bobby Darin.
DRE: Did you have an affinity for Bobby Darin?
LC: I was a big fan and for a guy like me to be offered a musical is a big deal. I did three drafts over six months and doing that for Barry Levinson is like going to script school. Then at the same time as all that I was writing Apaches.
DRE: What was the inspiration for Paradise City?
LC: I have an affinity for Naples and my mom, until she passed away, lived on an island off the coast of it. I go to Italy a lot. I wanted to do, not so much a fish out of water story, but a story about a guy who is comfortable on both sides of the ocean. The main character, Giancarlo Lo Manto, grew up in New York City and moved to Naples at the age of 15 and then becomes a cop. I wanted a character who embodies the best of both cities. He moves back and forth on a number of task force operations. Naples is a really tough city; its the poorest city in Europe and has the highest crime rate over there. So those cops are really action cops. So Lo Manto combines the southern Italian charm with that New York edge. I also liked that no matter what neighborhood he goes into he doesnt see white or black but he just sees people. I wanted a little bit of Dirty Harry but he doesnt pull the gun first.
DRE: Did you do research into Naples police procedures?
LC: Street Boys is set in Naples so National Geographic traveler asked me to do a cover story on Naples. I used that to spend two weeks just walking the streets. When I was gearing up to do Paradise City I called up a New York City cop friend who had been on a number of task forces in Italy and I talked to him. Then I talked to some cops in Naples. I wasnt so much interested in procedure because that doesnt change much from city to city. Naples is not as hamstrung as New York City cops with search and seizure but they are hamstrung more by politics. The cops frustration in New York is that there are too many rules and the Naples cops frustration is that there are too many layers of different people so its hard to get to the main target. Once I knew that, it became good guy against bad guy.
DRE: Obviously you started off doing autobiography with Sleepers but is Paradise City autobiographical at all?
LC: No the name is actually from a cousin of mine. I asked him if I could use it a couple of years ago. I loved his father who married my moms sister so I wanted Giancarlo to be classy guy like him. I also thought the name Lo Manto for a European cop would be cool. My cousin then read the book and he said it was weird for him to see his name on every page.
DRE: Did you pass the book to anyone you work with on Law & Order?
LC: I didnt show it to anybody before it was published but I gave a copy to [Law & Order creator] Dick Wolf when I was finished. I think working on the show helped me. It helped make the book better structured than any of my other books. Law & Order is a very confined structure but Wolf allows you to be as creative as you want within that structure. It makes you more focused and more disciplined as a writer. So the lessons I learned at Law & Order came over to the book. Also the book, police wise, is probably much more accurate than the stuff I did in Apaches because Law & Order gives you all these great technical advisors who can tell you 2000 different ways to kill somebody. The murders in Paradise City are closer to the mark and the police lingo is also more accurate.
DRE: As someone who has written six books, how do you work with an editor now?
LC: I think I work a lot differently than a lot of authors. I dont write 600 pages then hand it in and wait two weeks for them to call me up and say it sucks. I dont do an outline but we talk the book out and then I go home and start writing. Whatever I do in a given week, I mail in to my editor and hes been great about responding. Also at page 100 my publisher gets it as well. With a number of books weve thrown out many pages like with Gangster we threw out 200 pages and the same with Sleepers. Apaches I think we threw out 75 pages and Street Boys we got rid of about 50 pages. Its not a great day when that happens but it saves us so much work down the road. Its almost like youre doing drafts one and two in the first one. Id rather do it that way than write an outline so its a team effort.
With Paradise City people seemed to like Lo Manto so we want to use him again later. But right now we decided to go back and do a book called Chasers which would be a sequel to Apaches. We will revisit Lo Manto at some point though.
DRE: Did you write a spec script that got you on Law & Order?
LC: No, the showrunner, Michael Chernuchin, is a friend of mine. We met in 1997 while I was in LA writing and producing a TV pilot. He was there writing a Schwarzenegger movie called The Racer. Our agents thought we would get along. The eerie part is that we look alike which freaked us out. Then he went on to create a TV show on TNT called Bull which was about the stock market. He asked me to write for that so I watched it and told him I had no idea what they were talking about so that didnt happen. But we kept in touch and he called me from Law & Order and asked if I would want to write an episode. I wrote the episode and it was a great experience. He then asked me if I wanted to work on the show. But now I am leaving Law & Order to do another pilot. Also [founder of Revolution Studios] Joe Roth just optioned Gangster to be a feature film. So I just finished the second draft of that script.
DRE: I spoke to Jason Patric about his movie Narc a few years ago. I asked him about Sleepers and he said that by the end of the shoot he didnt believe the story anymore.
LC: Thats his opinion. The thing with that book is that the question of whether it is true will always be in the air. Thats fine because Im resigned to that. As far as Im concerned the people who need to know, do know. Jason is a good actor and he did a great job. He always says that Sleepers is the only film hes been in that made any money. Maybe he should think about that instead.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
His most recent book is Paradise City which tells the story of Giancarlo Lo Manto an American born detective that now is on the Naples police force, homicide division, and the most dangerous beat in Europe. But back in New York City, Pete Rossi, the son of Don Nicola, has decided to bring Gian back to Americapermanently.
Check out the official site for Lorenzo Carcaterra
Daniel Robert Epstein: I thought the pace of Paradise City was faster than your other books. Did you feel that way?
Lorenzo Carcaterra: Im so close to it that its hard for me to tell. It is a faster paced story I guess because cop stories tend to be faster. I thought my previous book, Street Boys, had to be slower because it was a four day battle and we wanted to give the flavor of each day. Paradise City had to move a bit faster because we go from Naples to New York.
DRE: Some critics were saying maybe it was because you just started working on Law & Order right about the time of doing this book.
LC: Well I started working in TV in 1990 on a show called Top Cops. That ran on CBS from 91 to 94. Ive always done scripts for TV or movies when I was writing a book. I like to do a bunch of different things at the same time.
DRE: So it was just a coincidence?
LC: Yeah because I had planned to do Paradise City even before Street Boys. While I was doing Street Boys I wrote a script for Barry Levinson, Drew Barrymore and Johnny Depp called Dreamer about Bobby Darin.
DRE: Did you have an affinity for Bobby Darin?
LC: I was a big fan and for a guy like me to be offered a musical is a big deal. I did three drafts over six months and doing that for Barry Levinson is like going to script school. Then at the same time as all that I was writing Apaches.
DRE: What was the inspiration for Paradise City?
LC: I have an affinity for Naples and my mom, until she passed away, lived on an island off the coast of it. I go to Italy a lot. I wanted to do, not so much a fish out of water story, but a story about a guy who is comfortable on both sides of the ocean. The main character, Giancarlo Lo Manto, grew up in New York City and moved to Naples at the age of 15 and then becomes a cop. I wanted a character who embodies the best of both cities. He moves back and forth on a number of task force operations. Naples is a really tough city; its the poorest city in Europe and has the highest crime rate over there. So those cops are really action cops. So Lo Manto combines the southern Italian charm with that New York edge. I also liked that no matter what neighborhood he goes into he doesnt see white or black but he just sees people. I wanted a little bit of Dirty Harry but he doesnt pull the gun first.
DRE: Did you do research into Naples police procedures?
LC: Street Boys is set in Naples so National Geographic traveler asked me to do a cover story on Naples. I used that to spend two weeks just walking the streets. When I was gearing up to do Paradise City I called up a New York City cop friend who had been on a number of task forces in Italy and I talked to him. Then I talked to some cops in Naples. I wasnt so much interested in procedure because that doesnt change much from city to city. Naples is not as hamstrung as New York City cops with search and seizure but they are hamstrung more by politics. The cops frustration in New York is that there are too many rules and the Naples cops frustration is that there are too many layers of different people so its hard to get to the main target. Once I knew that, it became good guy against bad guy.
DRE: Obviously you started off doing autobiography with Sleepers but is Paradise City autobiographical at all?
LC: No the name is actually from a cousin of mine. I asked him if I could use it a couple of years ago. I loved his father who married my moms sister so I wanted Giancarlo to be classy guy like him. I also thought the name Lo Manto for a European cop would be cool. My cousin then read the book and he said it was weird for him to see his name on every page.
DRE: Did you pass the book to anyone you work with on Law & Order?
LC: I didnt show it to anybody before it was published but I gave a copy to [Law & Order creator] Dick Wolf when I was finished. I think working on the show helped me. It helped make the book better structured than any of my other books. Law & Order is a very confined structure but Wolf allows you to be as creative as you want within that structure. It makes you more focused and more disciplined as a writer. So the lessons I learned at Law & Order came over to the book. Also the book, police wise, is probably much more accurate than the stuff I did in Apaches because Law & Order gives you all these great technical advisors who can tell you 2000 different ways to kill somebody. The murders in Paradise City are closer to the mark and the police lingo is also more accurate.
DRE: As someone who has written six books, how do you work with an editor now?
LC: I think I work a lot differently than a lot of authors. I dont write 600 pages then hand it in and wait two weeks for them to call me up and say it sucks. I dont do an outline but we talk the book out and then I go home and start writing. Whatever I do in a given week, I mail in to my editor and hes been great about responding. Also at page 100 my publisher gets it as well. With a number of books weve thrown out many pages like with Gangster we threw out 200 pages and the same with Sleepers. Apaches I think we threw out 75 pages and Street Boys we got rid of about 50 pages. Its not a great day when that happens but it saves us so much work down the road. Its almost like youre doing drafts one and two in the first one. Id rather do it that way than write an outline so its a team effort.
With Paradise City people seemed to like Lo Manto so we want to use him again later. But right now we decided to go back and do a book called Chasers which would be a sequel to Apaches. We will revisit Lo Manto at some point though.
DRE: Did you write a spec script that got you on Law & Order?
LC: No, the showrunner, Michael Chernuchin, is a friend of mine. We met in 1997 while I was in LA writing and producing a TV pilot. He was there writing a Schwarzenegger movie called The Racer. Our agents thought we would get along. The eerie part is that we look alike which freaked us out. Then he went on to create a TV show on TNT called Bull which was about the stock market. He asked me to write for that so I watched it and told him I had no idea what they were talking about so that didnt happen. But we kept in touch and he called me from Law & Order and asked if I would want to write an episode. I wrote the episode and it was a great experience. He then asked me if I wanted to work on the show. But now I am leaving Law & Order to do another pilot. Also [founder of Revolution Studios] Joe Roth just optioned Gangster to be a feature film. So I just finished the second draft of that script.
DRE: I spoke to Jason Patric about his movie Narc a few years ago. I asked him about Sleepers and he said that by the end of the shoot he didnt believe the story anymore.
LC: Thats his opinion. The thing with that book is that the question of whether it is true will always be in the air. Thats fine because Im resigned to that. As far as Im concerned the people who need to know, do know. Jason is a good actor and he did a great job. He always says that Sleepers is the only film hes been in that made any money. Maybe he should think about that instead.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
jordan:
this is awesome....i just started reading street boys yesterday....a safe place and sleepers are both fantastic
burialrabbits:
The last two lines of this interview are fucking really funny.