Vallelonga achieved prominence with '' Green Book '' , which he co-wrote and produced . Based on the friendship of his father and Don Shirley , '' Green Book '' was critically praised and received dozens of award nominations , although the film was not without controversy , as Shirley 's family accused Vallelonga of falsifying information in the movie . In '' Variety '' , Vallelonga disputed the allegations : " There 's a lot of information the Shirley family does n't have , and they were hurt that I did n't speak to them . But to be quite honest with you , Don Shirley himself told me not to speak to anyone . And he only wanted certain parts of his life … So obviously , to say I did n't contact them , that was hard for me because I did n't want to betray what I promised him . " In 2015 , Vallelonga posted a tweet in which he asserted that he had seen Muslims celebrating the September 11 attacks . In January 2019 the tweet resurfaced , to which Vallelonga responded , " I want to apologize . I spent my life trying to bring this story of overcoming differences and finding common ground to the screen , and I am incredibly sorry to everyone associated with '' Green Book '' . "
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Nick Vallelonga