Carlito's Way: Rise to Power stars Jay Hernandez as Carlito Brigante, and chronicles Brigante's rise as a heroin drug czar in 1960s Harlem, New York. The film also features Mario Van Peebles, Michael Joseph Kelly, Luis Guzmán, Jaclyn DeSantis, Sean Combs, Burt Young, and Domenick Lombardozzi. Critically panned, the film nevertheless received Torres's as an accurate adaptation of the first half of his novel. The story begins in the 1960s with three inmates in a New York prison — Earl (Van Peebles), Rocco (Kelly), and Carlito (Hernandez) — controlling their criminal empire within their cell. Upon their release, they all look to control the drug
Al Pacino one of his most famous characters, Michael Corleone, in "The Godfather Part III" (1990). The film received mixed reviews, and had problems in pre-production due to script rewrites and the withdrawal of actors shortly before production. In 1991, Pacino starred in "Frankie and Johnny" with Michelle Pfeiffer, who co-starred with Pacino in "Scarface". Pacino portrays a recently paroled cook who begins a relationship with a waitress (Pfeiffer) in the diner where they work. It was adapted by Terrence McNally from his own Off-Broadway play "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" (1987), that featured Kenneth Welsh and Kathy Bates.