Travolta disputes being dumped

Says he wanted out of Lionsgate Gotti deal

Just 10 days before it was set to be released, the film Gotti, starring John Travolta as the legendary mobster John Gotti, has been dropped by Lionsgate

The news came via Tracking Board on Wednesday, which reported that Lionsgate had sold the film back to production company Emmett/Furla/Oasis, which would now be looking for new distribution and certainly not managing a 2017 release.

However, according to Travolta, who spoke to Deadline on Wednesday, this is “fake news.”

He says it wasn’t Lionsgate that sought to dump him, but rather, the other way around. Travolta felt that Lionsgate wouldn’t give Gotti the attention it deserved, treating it as more of an independent film than the wide release he believes it deserves.

In fact, the actor clams, he even found a new financier, Edward Walson, the producer behind Woody Allen’s Café Society and upcoming Wonder Wheel.

“Unfortunately, the reports were speculation bordering on fake news,” Travolta said.

“Lionsgate was planning on a minimal release, and I did an investigation into people who might have the interest and financial wherewithal to better release it. Ed is a fan of mine and of the Gotti story and really wanted to see the movie. I invited his group, they saw it and bought it. That is the simple explanation for this. It wasn’t dropped. It wasn’t easy to get Lionsgate to give it up. They said no, twice, and I literally begged them to reconsider and they finally and generously let it go. We signed this deal about three weeks ago, to purchase back the film from Lionsgate. Our mistake was we should have said something right then and discussed our plan for the film. We didn’t anticipate this speculation that is so grossly wrong.”

The speculation Travolta might be referring to is Twitter’s reaction to the news that the film had suddenly been dropped, questioning if the actor might be joining the ranks of countless male celebrities who have recently been met with assault and harassment allegations, leading many to be dumped from their respective projects (eg. Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K.).

Gotti was directed by Entourage’s Kevin Connolly and also stars Travolta’s reallife wife Kelly Preston as Victoria Gotti, wife of John. The project took several years to find funding, with several financiers having dropped out along the way.

Nevertheless, Walson believes it’s “a big movie-star film, with a multi-dimensional, iconic character portrayed by one of the great multi-talented actors.

“We are hoping to take this movie to Cannes; it’s a movie-star film that deserves the glitter of Cannes and then a wide release shortly thereafter.”