Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father may have had a few problems during development (not least losing director Nick Cassavetes and now facing a lawsuit from Joe Pesci), but it’s moving forward and has now secured actor Ben Foster to portray John Gotti, Jr., according to Variety. He will star opposite John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and Al Pacino.
Barry Levinson, who directed Ben Foster in the drama Liberty Heights, has stepped in to write and helm this biopic. After being cast, Foster had this to say, “Barry Levinson was the first director who took a chance on me, and I have a career because of him. This is a film about family, fathers and sons. I am deeply honored for the opportunity to work with Barry and the amazing cast he is assembling to help bring the story of the Gotti family to the screen.”
Gotti’s son 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. Presumably he sees a film as a way to rehabilitate his image, as he has been involved with it from the word go. Gotti Sr. died in prison in 2002.
Pre-production on Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father will begin in September, with principle photography set to take place in New York this January.
And if you’re wondering what the Pesci lawsuit is about, it’s because he claims the producers hired him for a role at $3 million, and he put on 30 pounds to play it. Then, when production was delayed, he says they told him he could now have a smaller role for only $1 million. He wants compensation, claiming they’d traded on his name to try and get financing sorted, and then pulled back on the deal once everything was in place. The producers of the movie have called the lawsuit a total joke and say Pesci has never signed a contract and stopped returning their phonecalls after Cassavetes left the production.