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 debut with "Looking for Richard", Pacino has also directed and starred in the independent film "Chinese Coffee" (2000), and the films "Wilde Salomé" (2011) and "Salomé" (2013), about the play "Salomé" by Oscar Wilde. Since 1994, Pacino has been the joint president of the Actors Studio with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel. In 2016, he received the Kennedy Center Honor. Pacino was born in East Harlem, New York City, to Italian American parents Salvatore and Rose (née Gerardi) Pacino. His parents divorced when he was two years old. His mother took him to The Bronx where they lived with her