CANNES: A long-awaited biopic of the notorious New York mafia boss John Gotti starring John Travolta is slated to premiere at Cannes, the film festival said Tuesday.
The movie — which is being shown at a “private presentation” on May 15 — traces the epic rise and fall of the Gambino crime clan, one of America’s most powerful mafia gangs in the 1980s.
The film is very much a family affair, featuring Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston as Gotti’s wife Victoria, and his daughter Ella Bleu as Gotti’s daughter Angel Gotti.
“We’re hoping to use Cannes as our launching pad,” the film’s marketing and distribution chief Dennis Rice told the Hollywood Reporter.
The project first took root in 2011 when John Gotti Jr. signed a deal with a little-known producer to make a film about his father.
But soon after Travolta agreed to play the lead role, the movie ran into obstacles, triggering a seemingly endless exodus of directors.
Shooting finally began two years ago under the direction of Kevin Connolly of “Entourage” fame.
But the highly anticipated planned release in December 2017 was canceled at the last minute.
However, this time producers are confident that it will at last hit the screen, with indie distributor Vertical Entertainment having announced the US release for June 15.
John Travolta starrer on New York mafia boss John Gotti gets Cannes premiere
John Travolta starrer on New York mafia boss John Gotti gets Cannes premiere
Highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm’ exhibition in Dubai
DUBAI: Here are three highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm,’ which runs until March 18 at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai.
‘Chronicles No. 1’
In his latest solo exhibition, the Palestinian artist “reimagines events that push past emotional capacity toward moral exhaustion, questioning the ethical certainty of the human spirit when faced with immense suffering,” according to the show catalogue, with works that “contemplate the devaluation of hope as a fundamental factor of human survival, sometimes revealed as currency for escape, sometimes seen in people resorting to their primal instincts to endure.”
‘Chronicles No. 8’
“Drawing from both personal and collective experiences, the exhibition unfolds as a layered reflection on how repeated trauma reshapes perception, belief, and the instinct to survive,” a press release for the show states. “Nasser translates lived realities into visual studies that move beyond immediate reaction. Rather than seeking resolution or catharsis, the works dwell in a state of moral exhaustion.”
‘Chronicles No. 3’
In “Chronicles from the Storm,” the UAE-based multidisciplinary artist is not attempting to offer answers, the press release suggests; rather, he is “bearing witness” and “inviting viewers to sit with unresolved questions and the uneasy persistence of the human spirit in the aftermath of the storm.” The works on show “carry a restrained intensity, resisting spectacle in favor of contemplation,” the release continues.
