John Travolta, Wife Kelly, And Daughter To Play Gottis In Upcoming Film

John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, are set to play John and Victoria Gotti in an upcoming biopic about the mob boss that will film in Cincinnati.

The Life And Death Of John Gotti will begin filming later this month, and producers are reportedly looking for extras for the film, as well as cars of a particular make and model. The Greater Cincinnati Film Commission says they are happy to take advantage of a new tax credit for shooting the movie in the Ohio city, which is one of several that will be filmed there this year.

“We are thrilled to welcome the cast and crew of ‘The Life and Death of John Gotti’ to Cincinnati. This is just one of many productions we expect to take advantage of the state’s revised Motion Picture Tax Credit, giving producers more incentive to use our area’s unique architecture and pool of talented actors and crew,” said executive director Kristen Erwin Schlotman.

John Travolta’s daughter, Ella Bleu, will also make an appearance in the film as John Gotti’s daughter, and the actor said recently that his family is actually a perfect match for the mob boss’s.

“My wife looks like Victoria and my daughter looks like Angel. It’s really weird,” Travolta said.

Entourage actor Kevin Connolly — who is friends with the Gotti family — is helming the film and said he couldn’t believe it when he saw pictures of the Travolta family and realized how much they looked like the Gottis.

“It’s uncanny. I looked at pictures and was thinking this is too perfect. Life is too short not to go to work with your family and friends,” said Connolly.

According to Travolta, the film will be “gritty” and won’t hold back from showing fans the reality of living inside a crime family.

“Kevin presented his take to me, which is the vision I’ve always wanted, and I believe the vision John Jr. wanted. It’s a small character study of John Jr. and John Sr. that investigates the realness and grittiness of their repoire and the historical events of the Gotti family,” John Travolta said.

The movie has had a lot of trouble, reportedly going through four directors in five years. Rumors have been flying for a long time now that it was going to be made but nothing was finalized, and several actors — including Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Foster, and Lindsay Lohan — have dropped out.

According to Deadline, John Gotti, Jr. sold his life rights to the project, which helped to build a script focused on the father-son rule of the Gambino crime family in New York. Gotti, Sr. was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1992 after his right-hand man, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, testified against him. Gotti passed away in prison after a battle with cancer in 2002.

John Travolta earned an Emmy nod this week for his work on American Crime Story— the FX original series that told the story of O.J. Simpson and his trial, after his ex-wife and friend were found murdered in her home. The show was his first TV work since Welcome Back, Kotter, and Travolta made headlines for his portrayal of Robert Shapiro — particularly his appearance, which came complete with thick faux eyebrows — but the show was generally well-received and earned a whopping 22 nominations this awards season. Travolta said recently that he told showrunner Ryan Murphy that he’s interested in appearing in the show’s second season, which will focus on Hurricane Katrina.

“I told them I was interested and that it was up to them. I don’t think they expected that I would say that, but because Katrina comes close to home, I felt that way…I’m very interested in the Katrina story because Kelly and I were actually a part of that in real life. We went with a plane-load of medics and supplies and went deep into the parishes to help people, so I have a personal feeling about that. It touches me deeply,” John said.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]