John Travolta to play Dapper Don John Gotti

It’s official, John Travolta will play John Gotti Sr., the godfather of the Gambino crime family known as ‘Dapper Don,’ in the film Gotti: Three Generations, reports the Hollywood Reporter.

Nick Cassavetes (My Sister’s Keeper, The Notebook) will the directing the Leo Rossi screenplay, which will be shot entirely in New York, not far from Travolta’s New Jersey birthplace.

The film focuses on the relationship between father John Gotti Sr, head of the Gambino crime family who died of cancer in prison in 2002, and son, John Gotti Jr,, who took over the family business, went to prison, and later successfully evaded conviction in four subsequent racketeering trials.

A press conference with Travolta, Cassavetes, and Gotti Jr will be held April 12 in New York. The film has a planned release date of 2013.

Longtime movie star, Travolta has played some famous Italian roles on film, most of them fictional, including high school ‘sweathog’ Vinnie Barbarino, disco dancer Tony Manero, Grease musical star Danny Zuko, and killer Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, not to mention his cross-dressing (non-Italian) turn as Edna Turnblad in the musical Hairspray.

Travolta won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Elmore Leonard’s fictional mobster-turned-film producer, Chili Palmer, a Miami loan shark who gets involved in filmmaking when he tries to collect a gambling debt from a B-movie producer.