DUE to lockdown, it has been a while since a new film came out, so movie fans are looking forward to the upcoming release of “Capone”, that explores the final chapter of the iconic gangster’s life.
Where’s the movie showing?
It’s being released in “digital formats”, with producers saying it will premiere as an on-demand 48-hour rental, but they have high hopes of releasing it in cinemas “later in the summer as things return to normal”.
Who’s in it?
London-born Tom Hardy transforms into Capone. The 42-year-old is famous for starring in the hit BBC drama, Peaky Blinders. His other films include Venom, The Dark Knight Rises and Dunkirk.
Matt Dillon and Kyle Maclachan also feature.
He’s got form for gangster flicks?
He played both Reggie and Ronald Kray in 2015 movie, Legend, a biopic of the Kray Twins’ rise and fall.
Now Capone?
Josh Trank, director of the 2015 movie Fantastic Four, is at the helm of the new biopic, posting the first trailer online this week, ahead of the May 12 release.
It’s about his later years?
It focuses on his final years in Florida’s Palm Island when he has been released from Alcatraz and declines into dementia.
America’s most famous gangster?
Born in Brooklyn in 1899, he joined local gangs as a child and around 1920 - during the height of the Prohibition era - moved to Chicago, where he eventually took charge of the mob in 1925. His multi-million dollar outfit dominated bootlegging, gambling and prostitution and Capone was responsible for many savage acts of violence, mainly against other gangsters.
The St Valentine’s Day Massacre?
His most brutal act was on February 14, 1929, when he ordered the assassination of seven rivals, who were lined up against a wall and shot by unknown assailants dressed like police officers. The killings dented the image of Capone - who had cultivated a “Robin Hood” style public persona - and in response to the public outcry, President Hoover ordered the federal government to ramp up efforts to snare him.
He was finally jailed?
Never brought to justice for his racketeering or brutalities, he was finally imprisoned for for income-tax evasion in 1931 and served nearly seven years, latterly in Alcatraz.
Decline?
Having contracted syphilis as a young man, he was suffering from neurosyphilis when released from jail, which caused dementia. After an initial spell in a mental hospital, he lived out his last days in Miami, until his death in 1947.
Pop culture?
His gangster persona captured the public’s imagination and has seen him immortalised in books and movies through the years, including a portrayal by Robert de Niro in the 1987 Brian De Palma movie, The Untouchables.
And now?
The trailer offers a glimpse of the tone of the film, with an FBI agent posing the question: “Do you know what the difference between Adolf Hitler and Al Capone is? Hitler is dead, Capone lives like a king in Florida”.
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