The author of Hotel Scarface thinks Hotel Cocaine from MGM+ is a bit too similar.
“It was like a gut punch,” said Farzad. “I had to say it’s not mine.”
Author and NPR host Roben Farzad went to cock fights in the Everglades to persuade some of Miami’s scariest underworld figures to describe their exploits in the early eighties when cocaine and murder were the order of the day.
Farzad’s book, “Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Plotted to Control Miami,” documented the real life stories of the DEA agents, CIA assassins, politicians and rock stars like Liza Minnelli and Rick James who frequented The Mutiny club. It was catnip for TV producers but despite getting optioned and interest from the likes of Brett Ratner and the producers of Netflix “Narcos,” Farzad’s efforts to see a TV or film show are a cautionary tale for authors with their sights set on Hollywood.
Things first looked promising but after a host of unfortunate twists and turns the screen effort came to nothing and now that Amazon’s MGM+ is in production with a series called “Hotel Cocaine,” a fictional series about The Mutiny from Chris Brancato, a former Narcos’ co-creator, the nails are surely in the coffin.
MGM+ announced new talent attached to the project this week. The series stars Danny Pino, Michael Chiklis and Mark Feuerstein. I had interviewed Chris about his promising new series on The Media Mix podcast last month, prompting a call from Farzad who shared that his book “Hotel Scarface,” is uncannily similar to the proposed series, “Hotel Cocaine.”
So here’s the backstory as told to me by Farzad.
“Hotel Scarface,” was published by Penguin Berkley in 2017 and the rights were optioned almost immediately by Stone Village Television with the aim of developing a limited dramatic series with Farzad as executive producer, as Deadline wrote. Stone Village gets little traction.
Then in August 2019, “Narcos” showrunner Eric Newman, called to discuss an adaptation and Farzard is asked to think about letting the Stone Village deal end when its option expires that year. After “Narcos Mexico,” a “Narcos,” series set in Miami seemed like a logical follow-on, but again Farzad hears little to no follow up.
Farzad is asked by Stone Village to open the option up again for a short period in order to let the production company potentially merge the book project with another series in development with producer Erik Barmack titled, “Cocaine Cowboys.” That idea also comes to nothing.
Then the pandemic strikes and the “Hotel Scarface,” rights are tied up in a force majeure provision with Stone Village. The book is again at a stand still until the end of 2020.
By May 2021, Farzad signs with Ross Dinerstein, the founder of production company Campfire for a documentary about the book. The company pitches it to several streamers to no avail. By November, Farzad is told that Peacock is the last streamer to pass.
By early 2022, Deadline reports that Epix Studios, which became part of MGM, is working with former “Narcos” co-creator Chris Brancato to make “Hotel Cocaine,” focused on the life story of the general manager at The Mutiny, Roman Compte. The initial script was penned by his son Cuban actor Maurice Compte, who played Colonel Carrillo in the “Narcos” series. Compte is a co-executive producer on the show.
Brancato told me on the Media Mix podcast that Maurice Compte had told him about his father and the club many years ago and he had suggested the actor write a script and a few years later Compte returned with something finished.
When sources from the book heard about the MGM+ project they called Farzad to congratulate him. “It was like a gut punch,” said Farzad. “I had to say it’s not mine.”
People that helped Farzad write his book say they are frustrated by the MGM+ project.
Rick Morales Jnr., whose late father Ricardo “Monkey” Morales, a CIA assassin turned drug kingpin, features heavily in “Hotel Scarface,” told me he was approached via Instagram by someone purporting to be involved in the MGM+ effort looking for help. Morales declined to get involved.
Morales says Yul Vazquez, one of the main actors signed to the show, shared a photo of himself reading the book.
“If it was me, there’d be trouble going on,” said Morales Jnr. of Farzad’s book situation. Morales tells me his father’s life story will be part of a new Netflix series starring Sofia Vergara, “Griselda,” about a Colombian woman who ran a cartel.
Another of Farzad’s book sources is Nelson Aguilar, who was a former drug kingpin who hung out with musician Rick James at the club. Aguilar helped Farzad with many of his connections in order to keep the book as historically accurate as possible. Aguilar told me, “It’s a shame…that’s just the nature of life, big fish and little fish. I shouldn’t have to be that way.” Aguilar said, “Where Roben goes, I go.”
While Farzad’s book is non-fiction, people close to the MGM+ “Hotel Cocaine,” project say theirs is fictional and that the public is yet to see anything of the story which is set also set around The Mutiny hotel.
Farzad concludes, “There was a lot of activity around my book and it didn’t work. These guys come out of left field…and they call it “Hotel Cocaine.” He added: “I have not made a dollar in Hollywood, and that’s just the nature of the beast. It’s slippery. They promise you everything as an author and most of these things never see the light of day and maybe I just need to be more jaundiced about that. But this seems too close to what I had.”
A representative for the show declined comment.
I lived there for a while and this looks like a bunch of bullshit.
👏🏼👏🏼