Have you ever visited a real land-based casino in Canada? There is no need to worry if you haven’t because many people have had the closest interactions with casinos through movies. Some have even developed an interest in visiting online gambling platforms after watching gambling movies.
Casino movies are one of the biggest creations that shows what happens in a typical land-based casino. The movie was created in 1996, and you may be having a lot of questions, such as how was the Casino plot developed? Is Casino true story? We were lucky to interact with an expert in this area, Michelle Thomas (read more), to share with us some real facts:
Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal get interested in the movie because he is a fan of Robert De Niro
The movie is based on the true story of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. The main character in the movie is named Sam “Ace” Rothstein. Nicholas Pileggi approached ‘Lefty’ to write a book on his life history after he retired from active gambling and was living in Florida.
Frank didn’t oppose the idea much but didn’t provide the needed cooperation as well. However, it was not until he discovered that Martin Scorsese intended to make a movie out of the book and use De Niro as the main character that he got interested. Frank requested Pileggi to arrange a meeting with De Niro, and the documenting of his life started.
Saul Bass created the opening titles
Saul Bass is a big name in the movie industry as a designer of opening credit sequences. He was very active in the ’50s or ’60s, where he created more than 50 titles for different movies. Saul Bass worked with his wife Elaine, and the Casino movie title was his last work as he died at the age of 75, five months after the movie premiered.
His other title creations include Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Spartacus, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and West Side Story. Saul’s other titles for Scorsese are Cape Fear, Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence.
The movie was shot in a real casino
Scorsese wanted the movie to reflect real-life, which is why it was filmed in a real casino. The only major challenge of such a setting is that a typical casino never closes its doors, and hiring the entire building was out of the question.
The movie director agreed with Riviera casino management in Las Vegas to film the movie for six weeks. The filming could take place four nights a week when the casino was not that busy. The shooting occurred on a corner of the casino while real gameplay was happening in the background. Scorsese creatively used pit bosses and real dealers in the movie to avoid the extra costs of training the cast members.
Sharon Stone’s audition was canceled twice before she was finally brought on board
Sharon was featured on Blu-ray commentary where she describes how she got her role in the movie. Scorsese was held up on two occasions that were meant to be Sharon’s audition. She ended up being convinced that she could not get the role.
However, Scorsese’s management contacted her later for a 3rd attempt at the auditions, but she turned down. Scorsese would later track her down and turn up in the hotel where she was having dinner with a friend.
The book took longer than was expected
Nicholas Pileggi intended to write the book first and then adapt it to a movie. However, Scorsese had another approach where he convinced Nicholas to try the two at a go. He was thus forced to focus much on the screenplay, and the book could come out later.
The duo worked on the movie script together, but Nicholas had to rush back to the book creation so that it could come out before the movie. The book was available in different stores six weeks before the movie was released.
The above facts have answered most of the questions, such as was casino based on a true story? The movie was created in a time when land-based casinos were the order of the day. However, the modern world has changed a lot as Canadians are now hooked on platforms featured on https://casinocanada.com/, where they can play different games in the comfort of their homes.
