By Jennifer Merin

10th & Wolf

Directed by Bobby Moresco

Having garnered great industry gravitas as the Oscar-winning co-writer (with Paul Haggis) of Crash and co-producer of Million Dollar Baby, Bobby Moresco—who began in the business as a NY-based actor—now writes and directs his first solo feature, 10th & Wolf.

The gritty and violent gangland drama is based loosely on well-documented mob wars for control of Philadelphia (although the film was shot in Pittsburgh) and the legendary “Donny Brasco” story—former FBI agent Joe Pistone, the real “Donny Brasco,” consulted on and appears in the film.

“I never thought I’d make a mob film,” says Moresco. “But I see this story as dealing with issues that are universal and relevant for today. Tommy [James Marsden] returns home disillusioned from active duty in the Middle East, then FBI agents strong-arm him—extort him, really—to rat on his family, who happen to be connected. From the age of four, this guy’s been taught certain values: family, friendship and loyalty. Yet, he understands that the truth of his family’s world is utter betrayal and violence. He joins the Marines but discovers the military’s corrupt in the same way. Then, it’s the FBI, too. Now, whether you sit on the right or the left side of the aisle, you can extrapolate from this character’s experiences that we’re being given information about current events, and that maybe the information we’re given should be challenged. You can come out on either side—that’s okay with me. But don’t accept it blindly. That’s how it’s relevant. It’s not accidental that there’s an American flag in almost every shot in this movie.”

MERIN: Are you implying that our civilization’s basic principals have been corrupted?

MORESCO: Hopefully you’ll decide that for yourself when you see the movie, but certainly people in positions of authority—not only in the world of the Italians, but in the world of law and order—are people who’ve been compromised, or who make compromises for whatever their beliefs. Now, we live in a world of compromises, but if those compromises we make put us on the left side or the right side, the dark side or the light side, the good side or the bad side, I don’t know. You have to decide for yourself. I’m not in the business of giving answers—just raising questions.

In your thinking, what determines what’s right or wrong, what’s light or dark?

Our own soul. I think the characters in the movie made their own choices, and people watching this movie will decide for themselves if these characters made the right or the wrong choice. As a writer, I don’t believe in placing a value on their choices. Instead, I need to explore the human condition and why we make choices, and then let those characters make those choices. But if I imposed some sort of value system on them, I’d be a lesser writer.

How closely did you follow the true story?

When the story was initially brought to me, it closely followed the incident that happened in Philadelphia in 1991. That might have made a really good movie, but making another gangster movie just didn’t interest me. I mean, how’re you going to top Coppola in The Godfather or Scorsese in Goodfellas? It’s a losing proposition. I had to make this specific in terms of what I care about.

What interested me were the political implications of a guy who goes to war and then challenges it; then comes home and challenges things even more. Those things were not in the original story; they’re all made up. So, the original story was the jumping off point for the idea that we’re talking about now. If I’ve just made a film about good guys and bad guys shooting each other, then I’ve failed.

How do you develop a script’s specifics?

Story, story, story. Finding a story with a beginning, middle, and end, with twists and surprises and making sure your characters have interesting arcs that are specific to them. Then soak yourself up in your characters, spend hours and hours with them, writing their backstories, talking with your friends about them, speaking with actors about them and living in their world. You wake up with them in the morning and take notes, you go to sleep with them at night and take notes. I drive my wife and daughters nuts by talking about them. When you’ve lived in their world long enough and are sick of talking about them, you start writing. Talking about them is an analytical process, but when I start writing, if I don’t hear voices, I’m in trouble.

When you’re writing dialog, do you hear both voices?

Yeah. It usually shifts from one voice to the other. But sometimes I realize I’ve written a scene from one character’s point of view, and I have to go back and rewrite from the other character’s perspective. I rewrite continually. They tell you not to do that—to wait until you’ve finished the script—but I do a lot of rewriting as I go. I have a theater company, The Actors Gym, where we developed Million Dollar Baby and Crash, and I’ll bring in a scene I’m working on for actors to read, then I’ll rewrite. I do a lot of rewrites, but not many drafts. 10th & Wolf had three drafts, I think. But I’m writing a romantic comedy that’s going into production next May, I think, and I’ve already done 12 drafts on it because I don’t know what comedy is, and I’m trying to find out.