David Koepp (Carlito's Way) Carlito's Way

Koepp adapted the second novel because Carlito's age matched Pacino's

Producer Martin Bregman approached David Koepp after Koepp finished writing Bregman's forthcoming The Shadow. The two spent two years developing the shooting script. Koepp chose to adapt After Hours rather than the first novel because Carlito's age in the sequel was closer to Pacino's, and because the reformation narrative offered more dramatic tension than the rise-to-power story the first book told. The title was changed to Carlito's Way to avoid confusion with Martin Scorsese's 1985 After Hours. (wikipedia)

The voice-over was the script's hardest structural problem

Koepp wrestled with the narration placement throughout the writing process. The circular structure required Carlito's voice to operate from both sides of the bookend: knowing the ending while narrating the events that led to it. Initially the voice-over was placed in the hospital. De Palma suggested relocating it to the train station platform, which sharpened the emotional logic, Carlito speaks from the space between the last hope (the train) and the final violence (Benny Blanco's gun). (wikipedia, mentalfloss)

The hospital scenes were rewritten twenty-five to thirty times

Koepp rewrote the hospital sequence (beat 33) repeatedly because the actors had trouble with it. Pacino believed Carlito would not visit Kleinfeld in the hospital at all, which created a fundamental character logic problem that no amount of dialogue polish could solve. With one final rewrite, Koepp found the version that worked: Carlito goes not to forgive or confront but to look in Kleinfeld's eyes and know for sure. The visit becomes an act of verification rather than sentiment, which satisfied Pacino's objection that Carlito would not return out of loyalty to a man who had already betrayed him. (wikipedia)

Koepp's structural contribution was making the $75,000 target specific and trackable

The novels contain Carlito's dream of escape, but Koepp sharpened it into a precise dollar amount, a specific location, and a named person offering the buy-in. The $75,000 clock that ticks across beats 4, 8, 13, 23, and 32 is Koepp's invention, not Torres's. By making the dream concrete, Koepp converted an abstract desire into a measurable trajectory that the audience could follow and that the film could violate by specific increments. The $70,000 in the safe at beat 32 means Carlito is $5,000 short, and that precision makes the failure feel like theft rather than fate.

De Palma's strong sense of justice shaped the ending

In Torres's novels, Kleinfeld survives. De Palma's instinct was to kill him, believing that a man who murders a mob boss and his son and betrays his only friend could not plausibly survive the consequences. Koepp accommodated the change, which improved the film's structural logic: Kleinfeld's death in beat 34 (killed by Vincent Taglialucci after Carlito unloads his gun) completes the Kleinfeld arc and clears the way for the final act's focus on Carlito's escape attempt. (wikipedia)

Koepp toned down Pachanga's dialogue after feedback from Latino cast and crew

In the first draft, Pachanga spoke in a very heavy slang style. Following feedback from Latino cast and crew members who felt the dialect was overdone, Koepp adjusted the dialogue. The change reflects the production's effort to balance authenticity with respect, a tension that also shaped Pacino's decision to drop the ponytail after Edwin Torres brought him to East Harlem. (mentalfloss)