In that film, Newman had played Fast Eddie Felson, a pool hustler whose career ends before it really gets started. “The Hustler” was based on a 1959 novel by Walter Tevis, who wrote a sequel called “The Color of Money” in 1984. (Never mind the fact that it was the best film of 1977.) (Like “The Color of Money,” it was one of Scorsese’s only films to not get a four-star rating from Ebert.) It was made because the greatest director in the history of American movies had to make it, even if he didn’t know until Paul Newman told him.