 After completing "Reds", Beatty had several projects that he wanted to do but his two dream projects were to produce, star, and possibly direct the life story of Howard Hughes and the life story of Bugsy.Beatty stated that of all the characters he played in films, such as Clyde Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde" and John Reed in "Reds", he felt that he was the right actor to play both Bugsy and Hughes.Beatty was fascinated by Siegel, who he thought was a strange emblem of America (an American gangster who was the son of Jewish immigrants who became fascinated with Hollywood and who also envisioned a desert city in which legal gambling is allowed).