Earlier this year there was all kinds of hoopla surrounding the gestating John Gotti biopic, mostly because independent producers Fiore Films somehow managed to score John Travolta, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci for the film with none other than Barry Levinson directing (who stepped in for Nick Cassavetes who bailed on the project to focus on his now legally troubled flick “Yellow“). Well, it’s been nearly two months since we last heard anything, but believe it or not, the movie is indeed moving forward.
Fiore has formally announced that the film, now titled “Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father,” is moving towards cameras with pre-production to begin in September and actual filming not to start until January 2012 in New York City. The film has a lot of heat around it because one of the producers is John Gotti Jr., the mobster’s son now apparently going straight in a film that will chronicle his life in the mob, the gang world his father played in and how he eventually got out. Kelly Preston and Ella Bleu round out the cast, while the hunt is still on for Victoria Gotti (a role previously pegged for Lindsay Lohan) and more importantly for Gotti Jr, though a name may have surfaced.
Over at Showbiz 411, Roger Friedman says current “The Devil’s Double” star Dominic Cooper “may join” the film playing John Travolta’s son. It would certainly be an interesting choice if only because he bears no physical similarity at all to Junior, but Cooper is no stranger to physical transformation. The actor has apparently been turning down lots of projects, but the opportunity to work with Pacino and Pesci has to be tantalizing. Of course, this isn’t official and an announcement is expected to be made “within the next few weeks” of who exactly will play the role — but don’t be surprised if it’s Cooper.
No word yet on a release date, but we don’t expect to see it until late 2012 at the earliest or 2013 more realistically.