Dirty Hollywood
Where Gangsters Never Die

When Sean Penn met El Chapo, the world discovered that a Hollywood actor could do what the CIA, DEA, and FBI failed to do in ten years: track down the planet’s most wanted criminal and record his confession. But Penn succeeded because Hollywood and criminals have always been intertwined.

From Scarface (1931) to Reservoir Dogs (1991), gangster films shaped cinema. Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky — these mafia legends inspired Hollywood. And to make authentic films, directors like Coppola, De Palma, Scorsese, Tarantino, and Michael Mann all turned to real criminals as advisors.

Lenny Montana, once a Colombo family enforcer, became Luca Brasi for Coppola. Gianni Russo appeared in The Godfather with the mafia’s blessing. For Runaway Train, Andrei Konchalovsky hired two former San Quentin inmates — Edward Bunker and Danny Trejo — to coach Jon Voight and Eric Roberts. Mann later hired Bunker on Heat and even told Voight to study his gestures and way of speaking.

Over time, ex-gangsters even joined the actors’ union — ironically, a union once controlled by the mob. From James Cagney to Joe Pesci, from Dustin Hoffman to Jon Voight, Dirty Hollywood tells the story of the long, strange romance between Hollywood and real-life criminals.

Director : Sebastian Perez Pezzani
Production : Wichita Films
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Co producer : Martine Melloul – Kali Pictures
Network : OCS Ciné +
Year : 2024
Running Time : 59 minutes
World Distributor : Prime Entertainment
U.S Distributor : Monkey Wrench Films