A couple of weeks ago, Nick Cassavetes dropped out of directing the upcoming biopic Gotti: Three Generations. It’s not certain exactly why The Notebook helmer departed, but with a shoot scheduled for later this year, they needed to find someone else fairly quickly, and now Variety reports Barry Levinson has taken over the project.
Although not quite the name he was in the days of Diner, Rain Man, Sleepers and Wag The Dog, Levinson is always an interesting director, and has experience of both gangster pics and character drama that Gotti: Three Generations needs. John Travolta, Joe Pesci, and Lindsay Lohan have all signed onto this drama that will follow the life’s path of reformed gangster John Gotti Jr.
Gotti Jr. has has been instrumental in getting the movie made, with many seeing it as his attempt to rehabilitate his image. He grew up with a powerful mafioso father, got inducted into the Gambino Crime Family in 1988, and took over in the early 90s when his father was finally imprisoned. For several years, like his dad, he managed to escape conviction, before pleading guilty to racketeering in 1999, at whch point he says he put his life of crime behind him him. That said, he’s spent most of the past decade in court or in prison on charges stemming from both his former life and accusations that he was still involved in crime. Gotti Sr. died in prison in 2002.
Production on Gotti: Three Generations will begin in the autumn in New York.