Editing Bugsy (section)

==Production==
Beatty's desire to make and star in a film about Bugsy Siegel can be traced all the way back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. After completing ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]'' (1981), Beatty had several projects that he wanted to do but his two dream projects were to produce, star, and possibly direct the life story of [[Howard Hughes]] and the life story of Bugsy. Beatty stated that of all the characters he played in films, such as [[Clyde Barrow]] in ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' (1967) and [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]] in ''Reds'', he felt that he was the right actor to play both Bugsy and Hughes.

Beatty was fascinated by Siegel, who he thought was a strange emblem of America (an American gangster who was the son of Jewish immigrants who became fascinated with [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] and who also envisioned a [[Las Vegas|desert city in which legal gambling is allowed]]). Several filmmakers attempted to make a film based on Bugsy's life, most famously French director [[Jean-Luc Godard]], who wrote a script entitled ''The Story'' and envisioned [[Robert De Niro]] as Siegel and [[Diane Keaton]] as Virginia Hill.
In the late 1970s, Beatty met screenwriter [[James Toback]], with whom he became fast friends when Beatty was preparing ''[[Heaven Can Wait (1978 film)|Heaven Can Wait]]''. Years later, when Beatty was in pre-production on ''[[Ishtar (film)|Ishtar]]'', he asked Toback to write a script on Bugsy.

During the course of six years and in between two films that he was involved in, Toback wrote a 400-page document of Bugsy's life. However, under some strange circumstances,{{clarify|date=June 2015}} Toback lost the entire document. Under pressure from [[Warner Bros.]], who Beatty learned also had a Bugsy Siegel script ready to be produced, Beatty pursued Toback to write a script based on his lost document. Toback handed his new script to Beatty. Beatty approved it and went to several studios in hopes of obtaining financing and distribution for the film. Beatty presented Toback's script to Warner Bros. and claimed that it was much better than the one that Warner Bros. was interested in producing. Warner Bros. passed on the project, and Beatty eventually got the backing of [[TriStar Pictures]].

Initially, Toback was under the impression that ''he'' would be the director. For a while, Beatty could not find a director (he did not know or chose not to know of Toback's desire to direct the film). Beatty feared that he would be stuck in the position of having to direct the film himself. He said, "I'm in just about every scene of the picture, and I didn't want to have to do all that other work." However, Beatty announced to Toback that [[Barry Levinson]] was on board to direct ''Bugsy''. At first, Toback was disappointed, but he quickly learned that Levinson was the right person for the job. Despite the length of the script (which would have run three and a half to four hours), Beatty, Levinson, and Toback condensed it to a two-and-a-half to three-hour script. The trio worked very closely together during the production of the film.

During casting, Beatty wanted [[Annette Bening]] to play the role of Virginia Hill. Before ''Bugsy'', Bening was a candidate to play Tess Trueheart in Beatty's ''[[Dick Tracy (1990 film)|Dick Tracy]]''. After seeing her audition, Beatty phoned Levinson and told him, "She's terrific. I love her. I'm going to marry her". Levinson thought Beatty was just excited at her audition and did not think that Beatty actually meant what he had said. Both Beatty and Bening stated that their relationship started after completing the film. Later that summer, Bening became pregnant with her and Beatty's first child, which resulted in a tabloid/media frenzy at the time. The child was born January 8, 1992, and the couple married on March 12.

Originally, Beatty played Bugsy with a heavy New York City accent (which can be heard in the trailer). However, both Levinson and Toback thought that the accent was not right, so Beatty dropped the accent (which he thought was "charming") and used his normal voice.

[[Principal photography]] began in January 1991, and filming wrapped in May 1991. Locations included Los Angeles, [[Pasadena, California]], [[Coachella Valley]], California, and the [[Mojave Desert]].<ref name = AFI>{{cite web|url = https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/58790|title = Bugsy (1991)|website = [[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]]|publisher = [[American Film Institute]]|accessdate = December 13, 2024}}</ref><ref name=Filming>{{cite web |title=Coachella Valley Feature Film Production 1920–2011 |url=http://www.visitpalmsprings.com/page/filming-in-palm-springs/126939|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305201810/http://www.visitpalmsprings.com/page/filming-in-palm-springs/126939|archive-date=March 5, 2016|work=Filming in Palm Springs |access-date=October 1, 2012 |author=Palm Springs Visitors Center |location=Palm Springs, CA}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=December 2016}}<ref>http://visitpalmsprings.com/stream/126941?mode=Download {{dead link|date=December 2016}}</ref>