NEW YORK, April 13, (Agencies): John Travolta says his upcoming performance as an infamous New York mafia boss will offer audiences a movie they can’t refuse.
The star, set to play late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti joined director Nick Cassavetes and the mobster’s son John “Junior” Gotti to reveal details about the film “Gotti: Three Generations.”
“This is probably the most interesting untold story in this country. What a character to approach!” Travolta told a press conference in New York, where the film, also starring Joe Pesci and possibly Lindsay Lohan, will be shot later this year.
Travolta, wearing a green tie and his hair close-cropped, called Gotti, who died in prison in 2002, an old school mafioso who lived by “a moral code.”
In his long and bloody career as head of one of the historic five New York Italian mafia families, Gotti won public sympathy for his stylish appearance and wit. He was known as the “Dapper Don” and also the “Teflon Don” for his longtime ability to beat federal prosecutors in court.
“I like the glamor he had,” Travolta said. “He charmed the press, he charmed his family.”

The dark side, said Travolta, who famously played a laconic gunman in “Pulp Fiction,” included “the paranoia, the fear, the putting the family at risk.”
To research the part, Travolta plans to study as much original video footage as possible and to “understand how a syndicate like this works.”
Pointing into the hotel room where journalists crammed in with dozens of Gotti family members and associates, Travolta said “there’s a plethora of knowledge here that I tap.”
John “Junior,” who himself has beaten four federal prosecutions on racketeering, murder and mob charges, said he wanted his father to be portrayed fairly.
“My father was an icon. He was a man larger than life,” he said.
When a reporter asked how families of people killed, injured, robbed or otherwise victimized during Gotti senior’s reign would feel about the Hollywood treatment, the younger Gotti snapped: “In this script, everybody’s a victim.”

Film reps would not reveal who is being cast to play Gotti’s son. Although not as flamboyant as his father, he also sports the dapper look and turned up to the press conference in a grey suit and open-necked shirt.
The film, due for release in 2012, will co-star Pesci as Gotti’s deputy Angelo Ruggiero, and possibly also Lohan, who attended the press conference alongside a row of bejeweled Gotti family members.
At a subsequent photo shoot in which baying paparazzi pushed and shoved for a better angle, blonde-haired Lohan posed next to Gotti’s daughter Victoria, fueling speculation that the in-and-out-of-trouble starlet may see playing the mob heiress as a way to resurrect her career.
Producer Marc Fiore praised Lohan’s acting skills and confirmed she was in the mix.
Producer Fiore confirmed that he’s in talks with Lohan, whom he called “a terrific actress,” but said nothing had been finalized.
Lohan, who has starred in such films as “Mean Girls” and “Freaky Friday,” sat in the front row at the press conference and posed for photos with the cast and crew but didn’t talk to the press. She has been plagued by legal problems in recent years and is now battling a felony grand theft charge in California over a $2,500 necklace.

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LOS ANGELES: Bradley Cooper is in early negotiations to star in a remake of “The Crow,’’ the 1994 film that gained cult status due in part to star Brandon Lee’s on-set accidental death.
Based on a gritty black-and-white indie comic by artist James O’Barr, the film revolves around a rock musician who is murdered while trying to save his fiancee from thugs. He is resurrected by supernatural forces and seeks revenge. The original film spawned three sequels and a TV series, each starring a new actor.