Lady Gaga to star in Ridley Scott’s Gucci murder movie
Johnson to produce, star in film about UFC champ Kerr
LOS ANGELES, Nov 2, (RTRS): Lady Gaga will star in a movie about the Gucci family fashion dynasty and the murder of the grandson of founder Guccio Gucci.
Ridley Scott is directing the film. Gaga will portray Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci. She had been abandoned after 12 years of marriage by Maurizio Gucci in 1985 for a younger woman. Reggiani was tried and convicted of orchestrating her ex-husband’s assassination on the steps of his office in Italy in 1995. She gained the nickname the Black Widow during the trial and served 18 years before being released from prison in 2016.
The pic follows Gaga’s first movie, “A Star Is Born”. She earned a best actress nomination and won an Oscar for writing the hit song “Shallow” for the film.
The story about the Gucci murder is scripted by Roberto Bentivegna, based on Sara Gay Forden’s book “The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed”.
Scott will produce the Gucci saga with Giannina Scott and his Scott Free Productions. He most recently directed “All the Money in the World” about the Getty kidnapping. Scott has been nominated for a directing Academy Award for “Thelma & Louise”, “Gladiator” and “Black Hawk Down” and for a Best Picture Oscar for “The Martian”.
The Gucci murder project has not been set up with a studio distributor attached. Ridley Scott is directing the historical drama “The Last Duel”, starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Adam Driver for Disney-Fox.
Giannina Scott appeared in “Gladiator”. She originally brought the Gucci project to Ridley Scott. Giannina Scott also teamed with Ridley Scott as a producer on “Concussion” and “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House”. She co-produced “Matchstick Men” and was a producer on “Tristan & Isolde”.
Dramatic
Meanwhile, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has found his next role to add to his extremely busy slate. The pro-wrestler-turned-Hollywoodmulti-hyphenate will star as MMA fighter and UFC champ Mark Kerr.
The project marks Johnson’s first true dramatic role in his career, which has been full of successful comedies, family fare and action flicks.
Johnson will produce through his production company, Seven Bucks Productions with Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, and frequent collaborator Beau Flynn. The project is in early development, and no studio is attached yet.
The announcement was made Friday evening at Madison Square Garden in New York where Johnson held a surprise press conference to discuss the role. Johnson was at MSG for UFC 244 where he was the guest presenter for the main even of Nate Diaz vs Jorge Masvidal where he will wrap the “BMF” title around the waist of the winner.
Kerr – known as The Smashing Machine, The Titan and The Specimen
– is a two-time UFC heavyweight champ, and was widely regarded as the best fighter in the world during his MMA career. He was the subject of a 2002 documentary, “The Smashing Machine”, but his life story has never been reflected in a scripted film. The documentary, which aired on HBO, chronicled his life and career, including his romantic relationships, friendships and addiction to painkillers.
“Mark Kerr’s story is such an incredible story,” Johnson said, addressing his fans at Madison Square Garden, after he made the surprise announcement Friday night that he’d be portraying Kerr on film. “Like all of us, and like a lot of these fighters, he battled these demons – these demons of addiction, these demons of mental health, these demons of getting out and the pressure of fighting in front of 50,000 people and what that does to somebody. Here’s a guy who has gone through it all, hit rock bottom, but the best part about Mark Kerr is that, like all of us in this room and all these fighters, these warriors, is that everyday, we get up and we want to do a little bit better tomorrow than we did today.”
Johnson said he had spoken to Kerr earlier in the day to let him know that he’d be making the announcement to the MMA fans on Friday night at the UFC weigh-in at Madison Square Garden, and Kerr was thankful that Johnson wants to tell his story. “He’s overwhelmed that this is happening, and I love that he trusts me with his life and with his story,” Johnson shared.