Cosa Nostra News

The John Gotti biopic is on again, with a new set of Hollywood backers joining the original producer. John Travolta remains tied to the project and is ready, once again, to step into the shoes of mob boss John Gotti in the long-gestating film, which Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films, Fiore Films and Herrick Entertainment are together producing. The two Johns:  Gotti and Travolta Travolta met with buyers and glad-handed the press at a Toronto event Sept. 11 where he discussed how the Gotti project had become a family project. His wife, Kelly Preston, and daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, have signed on to play Gotti’s real-life wife and daughter in the Lionsgate project.

UPDATE AT END:  Fiore Films, LLC  is trying to keep the publicity machine running for its yet-unnamed John Gotti project by reporting that it has signed with ICM to represent the film. What is missing is the meat and potatoes: Who is going to star in the film? Hopefully, it won't be a re-working of HBO's Gotti , which starred the great Armand Assante (probably the highest-profile mob character actor working today) and was supposedly made with help from Gotti's relatives -- as will Fiore's project. HBO's Gotti was also based on strong source material, the key to why it is pretty decent: the Jerry Capeci/Gene Mustain book , Gotti: Rise and Fall. However, Junior wasn't even a character in the Assante film, so hopefully we're in for something new -- and something more than a hagrio-pic (a word I think I just invented); in other words, a biopic that turns the character into a saint rather than portraying him realistically. With Junior involved we have to won...

"John (Travolta) was great, but it wasn’t perfect because nobody could have gotten it perfect. John did a better job than Armand Assante [in the 1996 film “Gotti”], and Armand did a good job." ---John Junior Gotti, who is not one to mince words...nor hedge bets... John Travolta dons the white suit and does the Saturday Night Fever thing..... "I’d rather wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch “Gotti” again," began a recent memorable  New York Post review of the long-gestating gangster revisionist biopic, Gotti. The reviewer added: "The finished product belongs in a cement bucket at the bottom of the river." And he called it the "worst movie of the year so far." In the years -- eight, in total -- it took to make this film, four directors passed on the project, which had a grand total of 44 producers. Kevin Connolly, the fifth and final, helmed the film, which premiered Friday night. So we can blame him. Co...

From the U.K.'s Daily Mail website  (photos courtesy of Splash News  unless otherwise noted) [Editor's notes inserted where I believe necessary, usually to correct, clarify and question. The writer claims Travolta "signed on" to play the role of John Gotti at this dinner -- but that is not so. From an article on Entertainment Weekly's website : "According to Marc Fiore — the CEO of Fiore Films, LLC — the Pulp Fiction star is in serious talks to play New York City mob boss John Gotti in Gotti, an upcoming film executive produced by Fiore about three generations of the crime family." But, in a parenthetical, the article adds: "(A source in Travolta’s camp says it’s one of four projects he’s considering at this time)." Overall, I don't think the Brits understand the American mob or the film industry -- or maybe it's some of their journalists that don't; they already think the big bust -- one of the largest in history  -- is going t...

Junior and his producers have reportedly hit a financial snag that may hold up the making of the biopic about his legendary father. The upcoming Gotti biopic that Fiore Films is producing is on hold, according to several published reports (see at the bottom of this post for links to several articles about the film's production being halted.) We first reported on Junior's Hollywood venture back in January:  http://cosa-nostra-news.blogspot.com/2011/01/junior-gotti-biopic-moving-forward.html . You can also search this site for several additional stories written, following the production's progress. Financial issues seem to be the culprit, according to many of the reports.Showbiz411.com reports work on the project has come to a halt and won’t resume until more financing is secured. Firstshowing.net reports that "the film has been 'plagued' by financial problems since the start. Now, the promised overseas funds have yet to materialize, halting the project t...

Filming for The Life and Death of John Gotti, starring John Travolta , reportedly started this month, with the first scene shot on Stone Barn Road in Indian Hill, Fox19 reported . Travolta's wife, Kelly Preston, plays Gotti's wife in the film. Kevin Connolly, who portrays manager Eric Murphy on Entourage, is directing the film, which has been on and off for years.  John Travolta as John Gotti. As for the surprise filming in Ohio, the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Film Commission has stated that filmmakers are taking advantage of Ohio's revised motion picture tax credit, which reimburses filmmakers for certain expenses.

John A. Gotti aka Junior is lending Travolta his father's personal items for a film about John Gotti Senior. John Gotti, former Gambino crime family boss, died in prison of cancer in 2002 at the age of 61. His son, former Gambino crime family boss John A. Gotti (aka "Junior"), says he left Cosa Nostra life in the dust many years ago. If John Junior is eyeing any kind of mob these days, it's the one based on the West Coast, aka Hollywood. High-caliber star John Travolta will play the Dapper Don in the upcoming production based on Junior's self-published book  Shadow of My Father . Junior claims he wrote the manuscript in response to the release of another book, George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules , based on the life and prodigious crimes of former Gambino enforcer John Alite .

UPDATE TWO The long-gestating film about New York mob boss John Gotti, now titled " Gotti ," features a new trailer (see below) with clips of John Travolta playing an older Dapper Don, the legendary former boss of the Gambino crime family who died of cancer on June 10, 2002 . John Travolta as John Gotti, in prison, years after his conviction. The film is slated to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this month and reportedly will be in theaters in June. Directed by Kevin Connolly, the film also stars Travolta's wife Kelly Preston, who plays Gotti's wife, Victoria, and his daughter, Ella Bleu, who plays daughter Angel. Other cast members, Stacey Keach (as Aniello Dellacroce , it seems, holy fck ), Pruitt Taylor Vince (as Angelo Ruggiero, aka Quack Quack), and William DeMeo as Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano . Gotti will premiere at Cannes, "most likely on May 15" and will be in theaters on June 15. Pitbull is composing the Gotti scor...

From  FirstShowing.net : About a year and a half ago, a developing biopic about Gambino crime family head John Gotti Sr.was developing with John Travolta playing the mob mastermind nicknamed the "Dapper Don." Nick Cassavetes was once directing, but ended up being replaced with Barry Levinson, and names like Al Pacino, Ben Foster, Chazz Palminteri and even Lindsay Lohan (who later fell away) were circling roles. But the film hit a wall when financing fell through in October of 2011, and the film was dead in the water. Now THR reports the project is back with Travolta still attached and Joe Johnston in the director's chair. The film has been called Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father and Gotti: Three Generations, but now has been simplified to just Gotti, with producer Marc Fiore still involved along with Radar Pictures' Ted Field and Relativity Media handling U.S. distribution. Last we heard, the film followed three generations of the Gotti family with an emphasis...

Scarpo here: This is a case of "he said, she said." How do we know who to believe? Celebuzz, because they are telling us Showbiz 411, a competitor by the way, is incorrect? In my thinking the latter Showbiz411 story carries greater weight in that it has more facts and sources and everything versus Celebuzz, which simply gets "an insider" -- who could be the caterer for all we know -- to call the other story fake because "outlets following the production [have] been covering this story from the beginning with a shameful bias, based on [a] friendship with someone no longer affiliated with the project." WTF??? Twenty years in the news business, I have never heard such a lame excuse! “Readers should not trust anything [that is written],” said the insider. So how can we trust the story in which the insider is quoted??? Heller would've loved this -- talk about your catch-22s! I leave it up to readers to decide... I agree this film is the horse's h...

Happier Days: Apparently, we will never know how good or bad the film would have turned out. Forbes is reporting that Fiore production's much-hyped 'Gotti' film is as dead as the heyday of Cosa Nostra. It is probably one of the most over-written films never to have made it to the screen, with producer Marc Fiore fighting an uphill battle, seemingly part of it of his own making, such as the endless bad press following negated negotiations with Joe Pesci, an actor many cinema fans enjoy watching, especially in Mafia films. But the "final nail" in the coffin, the article says, no doubt speaking what many think, likely is the bad tabloid press engendered by John Travolta -- who was to play the role of the infamous Gambino crime boss. "True or not, [this type of scandal is] corrosive to this sort of project," the Forbes article says, adding, "Said one ex-participant, 'I doubt John Gotti Jr. would want him playing his father now,'" ...

Scarpa in his strong days as arch enforcer and "special agent" for the Feds. Deadline Hollywood is reporting that a film about Colombo capo/lifelong informant Gregory "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa is slated to start filming early next year. Brad Furman will direct and Sylvester Stallone will play the lead role; it will be a Millennium Films production. Stallone could probably play a decent street guy. But can he play a decent Greg Scarpa? The script was written by Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the book and screenplay for the acclaimed mobster film Goodfellas , which was nominated for an Oscar. Pileggi also was the wordsmith for Casino , which won many kudos from critics but not much else. (I agree with many others: Pileggi was robbed -- he also should have been nominated for Casino, which he adapted from his own book.) Both those films further benefitted from the immortal direction of Martin Scorsese, who is not involved with the Scarpa film, howev...

 At my first writing gig, my boss told me to research the word hagiography and make sure I never wrote anything that would fall into the category ever again... John Travolta plays gangster for Junior Gotti's pricey vanity project. The story he was referring to was about adult filmmaker Andrew Blake, so at least you can understand where I was coming from.... And you probably already understand where this is going .... Yes, John (Junior) Gotti apparently still worships his father. Michael DiLeonardo, former Gambino capo, detailed for us Junior's bizarre proclivity for calling him chief, etc.  And trust me:  Listening to Mikie Scars tell you the real story would be endlessly preferable to this.    From THR: Most mafia movies, whether good or bad (and this one is bad), try to show that power corrupts, crime doesn’t pay and the price of allegiance to the Cosa Nostra is often too high to handle. Such is not the case of Gotti, an alto...

John A. Gotti In a YouTube video posted on his website , John A. "Junior" Gotti blasted the notion that his book, Shadow of My Father , was an immediate response to Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia , written by 30-year veteran journalist George Anastasia. Speaking with his lawyer, Charles Carnesi , by his side, ostensibly being interviewed by someone off camera, Gotti relayed the fact that he "actually" had written 375 pages "some four years ago," but "decided to put it on the shelf for peace of mind. To keep my family happy." "There is always that fear factor that the government would come after me again and harass me," he added. "Don't preen like a peacock, don't be like your father , just pull it back."

John Gotti, who died in 2002 , lives on. (He obviously lives on in the memories of his loved ones and those who knew him; then there's the friends and loved ones of those no longer here because of Gotti to remember.) The onetime Teflon Don found immortality of a sort in the mass media. Gotti with his lawyer, Bruce Cutler. (Cutler looking at anything in particular?) For decades, his presence has abounded in videos, films, books, magazines, newspapers -- and, yes, blogs. Then there's the work of Jerry Capeci of Gang Land News. Capeci and silent partner Gene Mustain have written the only Gotti books you need to read: Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti and Gotti: Rise and Fall . John Gotti is an especially hot topic as we transition into 2018. Stimulating some recent discourse is the long-gestating topic of  the Gotti biopic starring John Travolta as the Dapper Don. It was close to its theatrical run when it was pulled -- and sold back to the production co...