Pacino joins 'Gotti' cast
Actor Al Pacino is going back into the world of organised crime to join John Travolta in a new film, 'Gotti: Three Generations'.
Pacino, who played mob boss Michael Corleone in the 'Godfather' series will take the role of real-life American Gambino crime family underboss Neil Dellacroce, an associate and mentor to John Gotti Sr (Travolta).
'Gotti' reunites Pacino with Barry Levinson who was a producer on Pacino’s 1997 crime drama 'Donnie Brasco' and co-wrote his 1979 court saga '... And Justice for All'.
The cast also includes Lindsay Lohan, Joe Pesci and Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston.
Levinson, the Academy Award-winning director of 1988’s 'Rain Man' has brought his 'Bugsy' collaborator James Toback on board to rework the script for 'Gotti'.
The revisions will put more emphasis on Gotti’s relationship with Dellacroce, who was something of a father figure to the crime boss, Levinson said.
“There’s this whole thing about fathers and sons that plays through this piece,” Levinson said of the film, based on the life story of Gotti’s son, John Gotti Jr.
“You had a huge character in John Gotti, who’s basically old school and believed in the structure of that whole system, and the son at a certain point in time basically begins to reject it and wants out of it. He says: ’I can’t live my life this way’, so I think that’s a real conflict,” said Levinson.
Fiore Films, an independent production company, made the announcement in Cannes on the eve of the resort’s 64th Film Festival.
Pacino, 71, won a best-actor Oscar for 1992’s 'Scent of a Woman'.
The big casting question left is who will play Gotti Jr.
“My guess is it’s going to be someone that we may not really know. I only say that because I don’t know now who’s out there as a name where you say: ’Oh, yeah, he could be Gotti Jr,”’ Levinson said.
“I’ve always worked with a lot of unknowns, people who hadn’t really established themselves, so I’ve got no reluctance about that whatsoever.”
