This John Gotti biopic project, which always sounded more like some slimey producer’s wishful thinking passed off as reality over starlets and cocaine than an actual movie that was getting made, is really happening, at least if Variety is to be believed.  And Variety uses insidery slang like “thesps” and “helmer”, so I have no reason to doubt them.

Al Pacino has joined the cast of indie mob drama Gotti: Three Generations opposite John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Joe Pesci, and Lindsay Lohan.  Pacino will portray Gotti associate neil Dellacroce.  The film will be directed and rewritten by Barry Levinson — who replaced Nick Cassavetes last month — with additional writing by James Toback. Levinson and Toback teamed more than two decades ago on Bugsy.

Toback last directed the documentary Tyson, and is one of the great Hollywood blowhards, in the style of Robert Evans.

Preston will play Victoria DiGiorgio, the wife of John Gotti Sr. The couple’s daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, will play the role of their daughter, Angel Gotti. Joe Pesci is on board as Gotti deputy Angelo Ruggiero and Lindsay Lohan will play Kim Gotti, the wife of John Gotti Jr. [Variety]

It was mostly the lack of any well-known directors or writers that caused everyone’s skepticism about this project, along with the fact that producers who use Lindsay Lohan for publicity don’t have a great track record. Toback and Levinson are certainly known, but Levinson’s recent track record… ain’t great. His last couple projects were the HBO movie starring Pacino as Jack Kevorkian and a 30 for 30 documentary, but in terms of features that actually opened in theaters, you have to go all the way back to What Just Happened in 2008,which was panned and largely unseen, as were his films Man of the Year, Envy, Bandits (it got 65% on RT, but trust me, it sucks)…  pretty much everything he’s directed since Wag the Dog, in 1997.  Long story short, this movie probably isn’t going to be good, but I get the feeling the making-of, with its intersection of opportunistic mob families, sleazy producers, washed-up Hollywood types, coke-addled starlets, and closeted homosexual Scientologists, would make for an awesome Elmore Leonard story.

In the surprise story of the century, it seems the story Dina Lohan has been feeding TMZ about Lindsay being in talks to join the John Travolta-starring John Gotti biopic might actually be true (as opposed to, say, the time she was supposed to play Linda Lovelace in that film the director didn’t even have the rights to). There was a press conference today with the producer of the Gotti biopic (Marc Fiore, pictured), and aside from confirming that Lohan was indeed “in talks” to play John’s daughter Victoria (IT IS DEFINITELY MAYBE A POSSIBILITY!), they announced that Joe Pesci would play Gotti’s friend Angelo Ruggiero.  Then John Travolta got on the mic and spewed some typical Hollywood PR bullsh*t from his farting mouth-butt.

During the press conference at The Sheraton Hotel in midtown, the filmmakers said Joe Pesci will play Angelo Ruggiero. Travolta’s daughter will also have a role.

“This is probably the most interesting untold story in this country,” Travolta said, adding that a recent five-hour long meeting with Gotti Jr. put him over the top.

He cited the “beautiful love I feel from the family” and the dichotomy of Gotti Sr. as appealing, plus he said he is a fan of Growing up Gotti. [THR]

My favorite thing about covering entertainment are the statements celebrities make that are so preposterous that they make you wonder whether the teller is openly disdainful of his audience, believes the audience is so stupid that it doesn’t matter what they tell them, or just live such a charmed and utterly bullsh*t-soaked existence that they can’t even tell the difference between truth and bullsh*t anymore.  “The story of the Gotti family is probably the most interesting untold story in this country.  Also, I really loved that 41-episode reality show they made about them.”

As you may have noticed, the week between Christmas and New Year’s is one of gratuitous lists and not a lot of news.  Therefore,  ALLOW TO SUMMARIZE THE DAY’S OFFERINGS THROUGH STILL MORE LISTING!

Space Jam Website is a Time-Capsule from 1996.  Someone discovered WB’s website for Space Jam, preserved in amber from 1996.  It’s impossible not to poke around in there for a while.  It’s like today’s internet, but clumsier and slower, like trying to surf the net in Doc Marten boots.  HEY! I LIKE NEAT STUFF TO LOOK AT!  IT’S LIKE THIS SITE WAS DESIGNED JUST FOR ME!  (*cranks up Sponge CD*)  [via Buzzfeed]

All Domestic Theatrical and Video Grosses Represented Graphically. This guy graphed out every film’s gross in theaters and on video for the year 2010, kind of an amazing chart. I don’t quite understand it, but just thinking about the amount of work that went into it gives me hives. |Xach via /Film|

Lindsay Lohan “Mulling” Legal Action over Disguised Biopic, “Dogs in Pocketbooks.”

Dina Lohan says the new movie “is definitely based on Lindsay’s likeness,” and “We have a very strong case. It’s shadowing E*TRADE” — referring to Lohan’s suit against the online brokerage firm which produced a commercial featuring a baby Lindsay.

Yeah? And how’d that suit work out, dummy? E*TRADE should be backing up the Brinks truck any day now, right? Diamond cigarettes for everyone! We’ll live like kings! That’s good, just keep suing people.  That’s a way better economic plan than anyone getting a job. |TMZ|

Concussed Spider-Man Musical Actress Abandoning the Death Ship.  Natalie Mendoza, who played Arachne in the musical and previously starred in The Descent, took a rope to the dome three weeks ago and was replaced by America Olivo.  Now the actress, who was making her Broadway debut, is said to be negotiating an exit from the play.  Still unknown whether it was her own injury or seeing her co-star take a huge fall that was the final straw:

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Today in Shocking News You’ll Never Believe, Lindsay Lohan will no longer star as Linda Lovelace in the Linda Lovelace biopic no one thought would ever happen.  While pretending people still or ever cared about this project, “director” Matthew Wilder has announced that Malin Akerman will be taking Lindsay’s place.

Ultimately Wilder said the issue came down to “the impossibility” of insuring the actress “and some other issues.”  “We have stuck by Lindsay very patiently for a long time with a lot of love and support,” Wilding [sic] said. [HollywoodReporter]

While saying that he’d “rather not pick the scab” of Lohan’s firing, Wilder said that finding someone to provide insurance for the troubled actress “was proving a really tough obstacle.” [Perhaps even as tough as actually obtaining the rights to this story. -ed]
When asked whether Akerman had to audition to play the late porn star, Wilder replied, “Oh Lord no.” He added that he believed many moviegoers would be surprised by the “Couples Retreat” star and what he called her “strength and groundedness.” [LATimes]

Really?  Would we be surprised, Matthew?  Because at this stage, it seems like we know as much about her as you do.  To recap, back in May, there were two Lovelace biopic projects in the works.  Actually, there was one, from the guys who did Howl, until this guy Wilder announced out of the blue that he was doing one too, and the only reason anyone paid attention was that Lindsay Lohan was attached.  There was no way that was ever going to happen in the first place, but now he gets to be in the trades again with the news that he’s fired Lindsay from his mostly imaginary movie project.  And clearly his little publicity stunt has worked perfectly, because The Hollywood Reporter didn’t even bother to spell his name right.  I can’t wait for the next story three days from now when someone asks Malin Akerman about it.  “Max Wildmont?  Never heard of him.”

The quintessential Lebowski gif.  “The creep can thrust, man.”  (This one‘s pretty good too)  |UnrealityMag|

MORNING LINKS

• Burnsy’s An A-Z Guide To Endangered Animals And The A-Holes Who Keep Killing Them. |Uproxx|

• Will Androids Survive The IPhone 5?. |UproxxNews|

• A PG-13 Alien? Does It Cuddle People to Death? |NERDS!|

• C-Span 2 gets interesting for the first time ever when some dude airs his girlfriend’s dirty laundry. |WarmingGlow|

• Just as I’ve been saying for years, Gene Simmons is a massive, massive tool. |GammaSquad|

• Cee-Lo has a new track out, “Old Fashioned.” I want to go back in time and have Cee-Lo record every oldies song. |SmokingSection|

• Taiwanese news investigates Pedobear. |GorillaMask|

• 10 Humiliating Halloween Costume Ideas for Pets. |TheSmokingJacket|

• The NBA Dress Code, Five Years Later. |HoopDoctors|

• 25 Worst Business Names Of All Time. |NedHardy|

• Five people who drove off of cliffs besides Junior Seau. |HolyTaco|

• The nine lamest ghosts in movie history. |ScreenJunkies|

• Of course a Jonas Brother wore a super gay scarf to a baseball game. |NYCBarstoolSports|

• Okay, just one more gif.

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