Carlito Brigante: The Beginning

Carlito Brigante’s machine gun-shaped baton is being passed from Al Pacino to the 26-year-old Jay Hernandez.

Sep 27 2004

Forget the sequel, the prequel is the latest must-have script in Hollywood. Not only are we awaiting Exorcist: The Beginning and the as-yet untitled Star Trek prequel (which will probably be called Star Trek: The Beginning), but now it seems that Carlito Brigante’s machine gun-shaped baton is being passed from Al Pacino to the 26-year-old Jay Hernandez who is to play the Puerto Rican gangster in Carlito’s Way: (yep, you got it) The Beginning.

It’s easy to be cynical about prequels but sometimes the filmmakers just make it too easy. Michael Bregman, who produced Carlito’s Way, as well as The Adventures Of Pluto Nash and The Bone Collector, has penned the script to this prequel himself. And it doesn't help that bizarrely he asked cinema-goers to complete a questionnaire about what they thought should be in the script. Surely the idea of any film is to surprise the audience, not be predictable – which is hard to avoid when the audience have themselves suggested it!

Also, whereas Brian De Palma’s 1993 crime drama focused on the ex-con’s life at the point where he wants out of the gangs, drugs, pimping and the Mob (but is drawn back into a life of gangs, drugs, pimping and the Mob by his lawyer, played by Sean Penn), the prequel will concentrate on Carlito's early life of gangs, drugs, pimping and the Mob, from the 1940s to the early ‘70s. I’m confused, will this be that different? Those aforementioned cynics might say that this is just an attempt to cash in on the success of the first film, by providing us with more of the same, only with a younger, teen-friendly cast.

What’s more confusing is that Carlito’s Way was actually based on the Edwin Torres novel, After Hours, which was the follow-up to Carlito's Way, which was about Bergante’s early years. Huh?