Was 'Gone in 60 Seconds' Based on Merolle Crew?
A remake of a 1974 film was also based on the story of the Ray Merolle crew, a Staten-Island-based car-theft ring? Sounds preposterous to us, and yet....
If you have read about new Mob Wife Love Majewski, chances are you will have seen a little anecdote in the story that goes something like this:
Love Majewski and Ray Merolle, the man famous for running the "Untouchables" car-theft operation, were the inspiration for the film "Gone in Sixty Seconds," with Angelina Jolie playing a character based on Love. [Does that mean ol' Nic Cage was playing Ray?]
One prominent place where this is noted is on the ID blog for I Married a Mobster:
"Through Staten Island mob daughters like herself, Love Majewski meets Chris Paciello, a member of the Bonanno crime family, as well as Ray Merolle's "The Untouchables," the car-theft operation that inspired "Gone in 60 Seconds." When Chris grows abusive, Love asks for Ray's protection, becoming at once his personal property and accomplice to theft. Chris moves to Miami, but is eventually arrested for murdering a porn king's wife, while Ray is convicted of more than 100 counts back in Staten Island. This leaves Love to live her life in limbo, trying to date normal guys but never fully escaping the FBI's radar."
I am a film buff -- and a stickler for the truth -- and am a fan of 1970s' grindhouse films, which were the wellspring of inspiration for Quentin Tarantino. [I also love giallo films, that peculiar blend of sex and horror common in 1960's Italian cinema.]
But I brought up grindhouse for a reason. Something I had read somewhere... So, finally, I did a little research, which in the Internet age, takes very little time. The result is that it seems highly unlikely that the film "Gone in Sixty Seconds" (released in 2000) was based on Ray's infamous car ring. Why? Because that film was a remake of a 1974 film of the same name, "Gone in 60 Seconds." (Both films spelled out and used the numeral 60, based on the DVD box covers and theater one-sheets.)
The original version was written and directed by classic grindhouse filmmaker H.B. Halicki; the rewrite, though it shares little with the original version, according to IMDB.com, was written primarily by JJ Abrams, of "Fringe" and "Person of Interest" fame.
As for the synopsis of the original, according to IMDB.com:
Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor," in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute. Detectives are waiting and pursue Pace through five cities as he desperately tries to get away.
And the 2000 remake:
An action-Packed Heist caper that combines hi-tech action with refreshing comedy and never lets up for a minute. Legendary car booster Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicolas Cage) thought he'd left the fast lane behind -- until he's forced out of retirement in a do-or-die effort to save his kid brother (Giovanni Ribisi, LOST IN TRANSLATION, TV's FRIENDS) from the wrath of an evil mobster! But with speed to burn and attitude to spare, Memphis hastily reassembles his old crew -- a rogues' gallery including Academy Award-winner Robert Duvall (1983 Best Actor, TENDER MERCIES; OPEN RANGE) -- and floors it in a full-throttle race to pull off the ulimate car heist: 50 exotic beauties in 24 hours -- and the cops are already on to them! Directed by Dominic Sena and written by Scott Rosenberg and featuring a great soundtrack, GONE IN 60 SECONDS is an action-packed thrill ride that comes out fast and never slows down...Ice Cold and Hot Wired.
Also, Dominic Sena is the director of the remake; he is from Niles, Ohio. Scott Rosenberg, the credited writer of the remake, is from Needham, Mass. (And don't anyone tell me JJ Abrams finds inspiration in Staten Island car thieves.) If either one of them were from Staten Island that would have been enough for me.
Insurance investigator Maindrian Pace and his team lead double-lives as unstoppable car thieves. When a South American drug lord pays Pace to steal 48 cars for him, all but one, a 1973 Ford Mustang, are in the bag. As Pace prepares to rip-off the fastback, codenamed "Eleanor," in Long Beach, he is unaware that his boss has tipped off the police after a business dispute. Detectives are waiting and pursue Pace through five cities as he desperately tries to get away.
And the 2000 remake:
An action-Packed Heist caper that combines hi-tech action with refreshing comedy and never lets up for a minute. Legendary car booster Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicolas Cage) thought he'd left the fast lane behind -- until he's forced out of retirement in a do-or-die effort to save his kid brother (Giovanni Ribisi, LOST IN TRANSLATION, TV's FRIENDS) from the wrath of an evil mobster! But with speed to burn and attitude to spare, Memphis hastily reassembles his old crew -- a rogues' gallery including Academy Award-winner Robert Duvall (1983 Best Actor, TENDER MERCIES; OPEN RANGE) -- and floors it in a full-throttle race to pull off the ulimate car heist: 50 exotic beauties in 24 hours -- and the cops are already on to them! Directed by Dominic Sena and written by Scott Rosenberg and featuring a great soundtrack, GONE IN 60 SECONDS is an action-packed thrill ride that comes out fast and never slows down...Ice Cold and Hot Wired.
The bottom line: the film is a remake of another film, the plots are very similar -- although IMDB claims there is little resemblance between the two versions, the synopses sound pretty damn close to me: the basic premise of both films involves a small crew having to steal a ridiculously large number of cars in one evening.
Love said on Twitter that it is "well documented" that "Gone in 60 Seconds" is based on Ray's car theft ring; presumably Love also means the little factoid she's brought up and kicked around about Angelina Jolie playing her, Love. (It must be something to be able to say: Angelina Jolie played me. I am so cool!)
I must also add: the remake sucks, too. As one critic wrote:
"Even though Oscar-bearers Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie and Robert Duvall came aboard for this project, the quality of Gone in 60 Seconds is disappointingly low. The plot line is nonsensical, and even the promised car-chase scenes are boring."
So on the one hand, you could think, who even cares! But then again, I guess some of us prefer to hold people accountable for what they say so that they can't go around and say any damn thing.