The Cotton Club is a 1984 American musical crime drama film co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and based on James Haskins' 1977 book of the same name.

The film stars Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, and Lonette McKee, with Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, Allen Garfield, Gwen Verdon, Fred Gwynne and Laurence Fishburne in supporting roles.

[2] A musician named Dixie Dwyer begins working with mobsters to advance his career but falls in love with Vera Cicero, the girlfriend of gangland kingpin Dutch Schultz.

In the meantime, Dixie's ambitious younger brother Vincent becomes a gangster in Schultz's mob and eventually a public enemy, holding Frenchy as a hostage.

While the club's management interferes with Sandman's romantic interest in Lila, a singer, its cruel treatment of the performers leads to an intervention by Harlem criminal 'Bumpy' Rhodes on their behalf.

[3] Evans hoped the film would bring public attention to African-American history in a similar way that Gone with the Wind did for the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era.

Evans worked to secure sole ownership of the film negative to recoup his losses from recent poor stock-market investments and a cocaine trafficking arrest.

The production was finally delayed when Evans reached a plea bargain to produce an advertising campaign of anti-drug public service announcements in exchange for an expungement of his record.

[4] In 1984, Evans, who intended to direct the film himself after Altman departed, hired William Kennedy and Francis Ford Coppola to re-write Mario Puzo's story and screenplay.

The killers later alleged that they had been hired by Evans and Radin's girlfriend Karen Greenberger, a drug dealer who felt she was cut out of profits from the film.

Author Mario Puzo was the original screenwriter and was eventually replaced by William Kennedy,[6] who wrote a rehearsal script in eight days which the cast used for three weeks prior to shooting.

Within several weeks the film was already over budget, allowing Evans to deduct from the $4 million salary of Coppola, who had not yet been fully paid because the script was still being rewritten and thus incomplete.

[4] On June 7, 1984, Sayyah filed a lawsuit against the Doumani brothers, their lawyer David Hurwitz, Evans and Orion Pictures for fraud and breach of contract.

[14] Lionsgate (owner of the Zoetrope Corporation backlog, and working in association with original studio Orion Pictures) released that version theatrically, and on DVD and Blu-ray in the fall of 2019.

[15][16] The Cotton Club was released on December 14, 1984, in the United States and Canada on 808 screens and grossed $2.9 million on its opening weekend, fifth place behind Beverly Hills Cop, Dune, City Heat and 2010.

The site's consensus states: "Energetic and brimming with memorable performers, The Cotton Club entertains with its visual and musical pizazz even as its plot only garners polite applause.