: To ensure realism, the directors used many first-time actors cast right off the street or from the Diamond District. This includes Julia Fox , who made her acting debut as Howard's mistress, and Maksud Agadjani , a real jeweler who played Howard's assistant.
: The film is loosely based on the Safdies' father, who worked as a runner in the Manhattan Diamond District for a man actually named Howard. Diamanti grezzi 2019
The 2019 film (titled Diamanti grezzi in Italian) is a high-tension crime thriller directed by Josh and Benny Safdie . It follows Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a Jewish-American jeweler in New York's Diamond District, who risks everything on a rare Ethiopian black opal to settle his gambling debts. : To ensure realism, the directors used many
Watch how the Safdie brothers and their cast brought this intense world to life through meticulous research and authentic casting: The 2019 film (titled Diamanti grezzi in Italian)
: During a kidnapping scene, the first-time actors beating up Sandler accidentally choked him. Because Sandler was so "in character," they didn't realize he was actually tapping out until the stunt coordinator intervened.
Below are some of the most interesting facts about the film's ten-year journey to the screen and the extreme measures taken to achieve its "feature-length panic attack" energy: Casting "What-Ifs"
: Jonah Hill was actually cast in 2017. However, the Safdies struggled to "youth down" the character for him, and Hill eventually left to direct his own film, Mid90s .