Like so many independent filmmakers, it took years for writer-director Noah Segan to get his new film “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” off the ground and into production. But the film finally became reality thanks in part to Segan’s role in the 2019 hit film “Knives Out” and the relationship he built with its director, Rian Johnson.
Segan told TheWrap at the Sundance Film Festival that while playing a comic relief cop investigating the murder of famed author Harlan Thrombey, he told Johnson that he was working on a film of his own and let him be the first person to read the script about a Big Apple pickpocket feeling out of place in an increasingly digital world.
“We’ve been friends for so long, worked together for so long, and he said, ‘You know, if ‘Knives Out’ does well, then we might be in a position where we could start a company that would produce movies and, you know, maybe produce a movie like this.’ Well, it took eight years, but here we are!”
Indeed, the success of “Knives Out” and the $468 million deal Johnson inked with Netflix to release two sequels led to the founding of his production company, T-Street, which is attached to “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.”
As part of his preparation to play the lead in “Only Pickpocket,” actor John Turturro went through several books on pickpockets given to him by Segan, who jokingly called it the “oldest profession.” In reading the material, Turturro learned that there really is honor among thieves … or at least a code … and in absorbing the history was able to settle into his role as a man who had been hustling in New York since the ’80s and now felt as if the world was leaving him behind.
“There was one book in particular called ‘Wiz Mob’ that was written by a sociologist who interviews all these people, and you hear it in their own words,” Turturro said. “Charles Dickens wrote about pickpockets. In ‘Oliver Twist,’ all the kids learn how to be pickpockets and there’s this sort of code they have.”
“As I was writing the script and researching, I was like, ‘Oh, these are like movie people. They have their code, and they kind of stick together, and they kind of have a weird way of doing stuff, but it works in their own way,’” added Segan.
While American productions have been fleeing to other countries left and right for tax incentives, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” was able to take advantage of New York’s expanded film tax incentive to shoot in all five boroughs of the city, joining recent films like Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing” and Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme.”
For T-Street producer Leopold Hughes, it was the most freeing experience he’s had shooting a film in some time.
“Shooting in New York, and especially a low budget movie, I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said. “One thing I’ve never, ever done in my career, which has been amazing, is I’ve always had playback, and we did not have that on this movie, and I think I might want to bring that back for every movie.”
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