Look at that picture above, so full of hope and promise, but also a good indication early on of a project that always seemed too good to be true. That snap was taken at a press conference this spring formally announcing “Gotti: Three Generations” (later retitled to “Gotti: In The Shadow Of My Father“) and yes, that’s Lindsay Lohan. And surprise, surprise she didn’t end up getting a role in the picture, but it was a pretty good way to drum up publicity for the movie. But that wasn’t the only hurdle the film faced. Original director Nick Cassavetes bailed only to be replaced by Barry Levinson. But the real indication something must have been up was when Joe Pesci sued the producers this summer claiming that not only did they change the role he was going to play, they were giving him a reduced salary as well. Money problems? It appears that was the case.
According to Roger Friedman over at Showbiz 411, despite a cast that would make financiers drool, with John Travolta, Al Pacino, Ben Foster, Kelly Preston and Chazz Palmienteri all on board, producer Marc Fiore is apparently still without sufficient funding to get this thing rolling. According to the site, several of the main people on the film including Pacino, Levinson and Travolta were supposed to be paid this week but apparently that hasn’t happened. Moreover, that previously mooted start date looks out of the question since almost no pre-production work has been done yet.
We were always a little suspect of how Fiore Films — whose only produced movie to date is a little seen National Lampoon‘s effort “One, Two, Many,” the quality of which you can judge below — managed to wrangle this kind of talent together for a James Toback written film that will chronicle John Gotti Jr.‘s life in the mob, the gang world his father played in and how he eventually got out. Whether or not Fiore can find the money he needs to get this thing moving again remains to be seen, but we’re not holding our breath.
