Trivia / New Jack City

• Cast the Runner-Up: Wesley Snipes originally wanted to play Scotty Appleton. However, Mario Van Peebles and Barry Michael Cooper insisted that he play Nino Brown, as the part was written especially for him.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: The role of Nino Brown was written especially for Wesley Snipes after Barry Michael Cooper saw him in the music video for Michael Jackson's "Bad".
• Development Hell: The sequel. Originally planned to begin filming in early 1992 for a Christmas release, the project has been off-and-on in development with no signs of stopping.
• I Am Not Spock: Chris Rock claimed that for several years following his acclaimed performance as a crack addict, drug dealers would approach him and put crack and cocaine in his pocket; joking that "they thought it was a documentary." He stated that, although he knew people who used crack at the time, he never did and, in his 1997 memoir Rock This had only smoked marijuana twice.
• Star-Making Role: This film largely put Wesley Snipes and Ice-T on the map. It also served as Chris Rock's first major film role after joining Saturday Night Live.
• Throw It In!: The chase between Scotty and Pookie was improvised. The original idea was for the chase to be a car chase, but the movie had gone over budget and was in danger of being shut down. Chris Rock, instead, hopped on a bicycle, and Ice-T chased him on foot.
• What Could Have Been:
  • New Jack Swing creator Teddy Riley was the original choice to score the movie, but it never panned out. Vassal Benford and Michel Colombier did the music instead and took a lot of inspiration from Teddy's playbook.
  • Blair Underwood was considered for the role of Nino Brown.
  • Tupac Shakur auditioned for Gee Money but was turned down due to the fact that he looked younger than Wesley Snipes.
  • Martin Lawrence auditioned for Pookie. However, he opted out of the film following the death of his mentor Robin Harris.
  • Vivica A. Fox auditioned for Celina and Keisha.
  • Johnny Depp was considered for the role of Detective Nick Peretti, but was deemed too expensive.

---