John Travolta’s mafia mobster movie dumped at last minute

HOLLYWOOD heavyweight John Travolta’s new movie was dumped by Lionsgate studio ten days from being released. The studio is staying silent.

HOLLYWOOD’S rumour mill is in overdrive after John Travolta’s new movie, Gotti, was dropped just 10 days before its scheduled release date.

Lionsgate dropped the John Gotti biopic at the eleventh hour, and gave no explanation for selling “Gotti” back to the production company, TMZ said.

The movie was due for release on December 15 and co-stars Travolta’s real-life wife Kelly Preston as crime boss John Gotti’s wife.

It’s a bizarre move for a major studio to pull a movie so close to release.

Sources say the studio has cut all ties with the project.

But a furious Travolta told Deadline news surrounding the pulling of the film stretched the truth: it “wasn’t dropped” — he had “begged” Lionsgate to sell the film back to its production company because it was “planning a minimal release” and he found another financier to avoid that.

The movie is about the life of mafia man John Gotti, leader of the Gambino crime family, and was directed by Entourage’s Kevin Connolly.

The movie has been plagued by delays and problems since production began in July 2016, according to TMZ.

The Tracking Board’s Jeff Sneider broke the news the movie had been iced, adding that producers will seek new distribution soon.

One of the film’s executive producers, Keya Morgan, told TMZ the new plan is to take it to Cannes or Venice first and then release it in at least 1000 theatres.

Travolta and wife Kelly Preston, who also stars in Gotti. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Travolta, 63, plays Gotti in multiple stages of his life, including when he finally went to prison in 1992. Gotti himself died while still in jail in 2002.

It’s a fresh hurdle for Hollywood heavyweight Travolta, who last month was accused of sexual harassment in the continued fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

The Pulp Fiction star, 63, was accused of groping a male masseur, then aged 21, on his “bare buttocks, exposing himself, and making lewd suggestions” according to a police report obtained by RadarOnline

The case was eventually “closed unfounded”, with police finding the “details do not meet the elements of battery … or sexual battery”.

The incident had previously been reported but police documentation only came to light in mid-November.

The masseur — who was not identified in the report — “consented to the touching after Travolta told him he was attractive, after Travolta said he had been excited, after Travolta removed his towel, and while Travolta was naked along with (redacted) in the steam room,” according to the report.

The prominent Scientologist has not commented publicly on the release of the police report. He was previously the subject of a $2 million law suit by two unnamed masseurs in 2012.

Last month, Travolta left powerful talent agency Creative Artists Agency, with Deadline reporting he would continue to be represented by his longtime manager at Principato/Young and his lawyer at Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp.

A passionate pilot, Travolta is a global ambassador for Qantas and his LA mansion is a functional airport, with two runways and a hangar offering him access to the open skies at a moment’s notice.

Originally published as John Travolta’s mafia mobster movie dumped at last minute