Editing Once Upon a Time in America (section)

=== Development ===
During the mid-1960s, Sergio Leone had read the novel ''The Hoods'' by [[Harry Grey]], a [[pseudonym]] for the former gangster-turned-informant whose real name was Harry Goldberg. In 1968, after shooting ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'', Leone made many efforts to talk to Grey. Having enjoyed Leone's ''Dollars Trilogy'', Grey finally responded and agreed to meet with Leone at a Manhattan bar.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=389–90}} Following that initial meeting, Leone met with Grey several times throughout the remainder of the 1960s and 1970s, having discussions with him to understand America through Grey's point of view.<ref name="Roger Fristoe">{{cite web |author=Roger Fristoe |title=Sergio Leone Profile |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |url=http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article=191909%7c191910/Sergio-Leone-Profile.html |access-date=March 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716203520/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/191909%7c191910/Sergio-Leone-Profile.html |archive-date=July 16, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="SL-NYT"/>

Intent on making another trilogy about America consisting of ''Once Upon a Time in the West'', ''[[Duck, You Sucker!]]'' and ''Once Upon a Time in America'', Leone turned down an offer from [[Paramount Pictures]] to direct ''[[The Godfather]]'' to pursue his pet project.<ref name="Roger Fristoe"/><ref name="SL-NYT">{{cite news |author=Lucia Bozzola |title=Sergio Leone |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/99378/Sergio-Leone/biography |access-date=March 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716203731/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/99378/Sergio-Leone/biography |archive-date=July 16, 2014|department=Movies & TV Dept. |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

At some point, Leone considered other colleagues including [[Miloš Forman]] and [[John Milius]] for the role of director, with Leone serving merely as producer.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=396–9}} For some time, the project was linked to French producers [[André Génovès]] and [[Gérard Lebovici]], and later to [[Gaumont Film Company|Gaumont]], with [[Gérard Depardieu]] and [[Jean Gabin]] slated to be the main actors.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=394–5}}

Acquiring the rights to the novel proved to be complicated, as they had been bought by [[Dan Curtis]], who intended to shoot the film and refused various offers by Leone and his backers to sell the rights.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=393–5}} Curtis eventually transferred the rights to [[Alberto Grimaldi]] in exchange for Grimaldi's production of his $2 million film ''[[Burnt Offerings (film)|Burnt Offerings]]''.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|page=395}}

Initially, only a draft for the film's opening scene was made, penned by [[Ernesto Gastaldi]] and developed by Robert Dillon, which Dillon eventually used in [[John Frankenheimer]]'s film ''[[99 and 44/100% Dead]]'', much to Leone's dismay.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=395-6}}

After Grimaldi bought the rights, he felt that he needed an American scriptwriter to faithfully capture the spirit of the novel; he eventually made a deal with [[Norman Mailer]], whose draft greatly disappointed both Grimaldi and Leone, who described Mailer's draft as "a [[Mickey Mouse]] version [of the novel]" that lacked in structure and "made no sense at all".{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=399-400}}  A few elements of Norman Mailer's first two drafts would eventually appear in the film.<ref name="Sokol" />

After Mailer's fiasco, Leone opted for an all-Italian team of scriptwriters: [[Leonardo Benvenuti]] and [[Piero De Bernardi]] would focus on the 1920s section, [[Enrico Medioli]] on the 1930s section, and [[Franco Arcalli|Franco "Kim" Arcalli]] on the time shifts, with Leone supervising and [[Franco Ferrini]] polishing the script.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=404-5}}

As of 1975–1976, Leone's casting ideas still included Depardieu and Gabin, as well as [[Richard Dreyfuss]] as Max, [[James Cagney]], [[Robert Charlebois]], and appearances by [[Henry Fonda]], [[James Stewart]], [[George Raft]] and [[Glenn Ford]].{{sfn|Frayling|2012|page=406}}

In 1976, [[Ennio Morricone]] had already composed all the main themes for the film.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|page=406}} Meanwhile, relations between Grimaldi and Leone soured, with Grimaldi unconvinced of the film's commercial viability and eventually exiting the project, being replaced in 1980 by Arnon Milchan.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|page=432}}

At this stage, Leone's casting ideas included [[Tom Berenger]], [[Dustin Hoffman]], [[Paul Newman]] and [[Liza Minnelli]].{{sfn|Frayling|2012|page=433}} A 317-page shooting script was completed in late 1981.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|page=407}} The final script, translated to English by [[Stuart M. Kaminsky]], was approved by Leone in May 1982.{{sfn|Frayling|2012|pages=434-6}}