Longtime reader and informant Juan José Arroyo Pacheco drops a line from Puerto Rico to share a tiny tidbit that’s intriguing. While being interviewed by El Nuevo Dia, salsa singer Domingo Quiñones said this:
“Me acaban de escoger para trabajar en la película ‘American Gangster II’, en
la que voy hacer el papel de un policía encubierto mexicano. Las escenas en las
que participo se van a grabar en Puerto Rico en unos meses.”
Now, if you’re like me, you failed Spanish in high school (and didn’t do much better with French), so here’s what Senor Pacheco translates that to mean:
“I was just chosen to work on the movie ‘American Gangster 2’, in which I’ll
play an undercover Mexican cop. The scenes in which I participate will be shot
in Puerto Rico in a few months.”
American Gangster 2? With Mexican cops? Quiñones was born in America, so I imagine he speaks plenty of English, meaning that I doubt this is some kind of Latin American remake of the Ridley Scott movie. Could it be an actual sequel, though? The story of Frank Lucas was pretty much finished in American Gangster, and I can’t find any references to Lucas doing much by way of Mexican visits.
A better possibility is that Universal is doing what they just love to do: making a direct to DVD sequel, possibly with a similar true tale of a gangster’s rise and fall – only this time a hispanic gangster. Hell, maybe American Gangster 3 could be an Asian mobster – Universal can hit each ethnic audience, one at a time.
Of course it’s possible that Quiñones is talking about a real, movie theater-bound feature, but I would say the smart money is on DVD.