The French Connection is a 1971 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, and Fernando Rey. The screenplay, by Ernest Tidyman, is based on Robin Moore's 1969 book of the same name about narcotics detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. It tells the story of their fictional counterparts, New York Police Department detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, in pursuit of wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier.