Is the “Gotti”movie back on track? Not so fast, Hollywood Reporter. THR reports Tuesday night that “Gotti” is back. But it isn’t much different than it was before. This is where we left it: producer Marc Fiore, real name Marco Fiore, a convicted federal felon who did time at Allenwood, brought in John Travolta and director Nick Cassavetes.
Then Cassavetes got out, and Fiore replaced him with Barry Levinson. Levinson brought in James Toback, who wrote a new script, and Al Pacino. Fiore, Levinson and co. came to Cannes in 2011 to sell the movie. But there was no money. Fiore enlisted Salvatore Carpanzano, another ex-Allenwood inmate, who represented foreign money. He named Carpanzano and Toback executive producers. But Fiore fell out with Carpanzano, whatever money there was disappeared. Fiore managed to get to Ted Field of Radar Pictures. But nothing happened. The whole thing fell apart.
That was the back story. Bada bing.
Now THR says Fiore is back, with Travolta and Field. They say Relativity Media is involved. Why? Who knows? And Fiore is still Fiore. His main backer is a guy named Thomas “Fay” Devlin, who owns a company called Eurotech. Fay Devlin is a huge financial supporter of Sinn Fein in Ireland. He was born there. Just Google him and Sinn Fein. It’s serious.
Oh and let’s not forget that Fiore and friends had to settle with Joe Pesci, who’d been promised a role that was reneged. Pesci sued them.
Levinson, Toback and Pacino are gone. The new director, they say, is Joe Johnston. Devlin and his partner Michael Froch are still mentioned, although now Fay is called Thomas. Fiore has gone back to his original script, by actor Leo Rossi, with revisions by Lem Dobbs, whose credits include “The Limey” and Robert Redford’s current “The Company You Keep.” They say they’re going to back to the Cannes sales market again, this time with IM Global and Stuart Ford et al. Stuart Ford has to be too smart for this.
And someone had better tell Fiore to update his website, which still plays Madonna’s “Hollywood” when you click on it. At www.fiorefilmsllc.com Levinson and crew are still making the movie.
Â
