Deadline has learned that Kevin Connolly has been tapped to direct the long-in-development John Gotti biopic. John Travolta is still set to star as the infamous mobster, and the film is looking to start production in January. Although best known for his role as Eric "E" Murphy on Entourage, Connolly also directed a couple of episodes of the HBO series turned movie, as well as episodes of Unhappily Ever After, the upcoming feature film DEAR ELEANOR, and the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary BIG SHOT.
The movie will be told from the perspective of John Gotti's son John Angelo Gotti , who was released from prison in 2005 after serving a nine-year sentence for racketeering. Gotti Sr. was convicted of murder, extortion, racketeering, loan-sharking, illegal gambling and tax evasion in 1992, and died of throat cancer in 1992 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.
I'm not totally convinced that the biopic is going to actually happen with Connolly behind the camera since the planned film has burned through several directors (Nick Cassavetes, Barry Levinson and, most recently, Joe Johnston), but it does have a tentative production start date, so maybe John Travolta will finally be able to make his Gotti movie in the near future. Travolta's upcoming big screen projects include Jackie Earle Haley's CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES, Chuck Russell's I AM WRATH and Ti West's IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE, and he'll also star as Robert Shapiro on the FX anthology series American Crime Story.
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