New Jack City was supposed to be the Black Godfather

New Jack City made its theatrical debut March 8, 1991—30 years ago Monday—so leading man Wesley Snipes reflected on it with Yahoo’s Kevin Polowy, including the original vision for the action-crime drama.

“The original film was supposed to be the Black Godfather,” Snipes said. “I guess you could say we came close?”

New Jack City centered around Nino Brown (Snipes), a powerful and power-hungry drug lord, and New York City police detective Scotty Appleton (Ice-T) trying to take him down as payback for Brown murdering his mother. The cast also included a then-26-year-old Chris Rock as an addict-turned-informant… read more >