As a novelist and screenwriter, Price has favored stories about tough guys, losers, and people desperate for a second chance. His world view comfortably coincides with that of Martin Scorsese, with whom he collaborated on "The Color of Money", the "Life Lessons" segment of "New York Stories" (1989), and an ambitious extended Michael Jackson music video, "BAD" (1987).
Several of Price's screenplays in the 1990s were high-profile remakes of film noir classics. Both "Night and the City" (1992) and "Kiss of Death" (1995) opened to mixed reviews and tepid box office. Price segued to producing as the executive producer on the unsuccessful romantic crime drama "Mad Dog and Glory" (1992), which he also scripted and appeared in. He also served as a co-producer on "Kiss of Death" and "Clockers" (both 1995). The latter was the hugely anticipated adaptation of Price's gritty fact-based 1991 novel of life amongst low-level Jersey City crack dealers.
Price was reportedly paid $1.9 million while "Clockers" was still in manuscript form ($1 million for the film rights; $900,000 to write a screenplay). Scorsese and De Niro were soon attached to the project but eventually dropped out to make Scorsese's "Casino". Writer-director Spike Lee came aboard and rewrote Price's script to emphasize the African American characters over the white policeman protagonist of the original. Lee's "Clockers" opened to respectful reviews and solid box office, though a number of reviewers quibbled about its deviations from Price's original story.