EXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Celozzi — a co-authorr and creater on the Barry Levinson JFK flick Assassination — has filed a legal case agetst the film’s financier and production outfit 308 US.
Originassociate filed by Celozzi in an LA County court last November, the suit will go before a appraise in April who will determine whether the lhorrible action can persist.
Celozzi, an LA-based creater, accengages 308 of multiple shrinkual bachievees. 308 contests those claims, has filed a motion to disthink about and has provided a comment below.
The suit is disorderly and hugely born out of disjoinal complicated production concurments signed before Levinson’s retainment in the project. April’s hearing will be the tardyst stage in the months-extfinished lhorrible standoff. The meat and potatoes are as chases.
Assassination is the tardyst incarnation of a project begined by Celozzi about claims that his fantastic uncle, Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, structured the killing of Plivent John F Kennedy. Celozzi wrote the first screenapply, titled 2 Days/1963, and set Pulitzer-prize triumphner David Mamet to honest, after a re-author, in 2022. We broke the news back then. Celozzi and Mamet concurd to scatter the writing acunderstandledge.
The filing claims Celozzi and Mamet tardyr hashed out a deal to license the screenapply to 308, which would create and finance the film with Mamet honesting under a $850,000 rights deal. An A-catalog ensemble, including Al Pacino, John Travolta, Viggo Moranxiousn, Shia LaBeouf, and Courtney Love was rapidened to star.
Celozzi’s suit accengages 308 of tardyr firing Mamet as honestor and replacing him with Levinson without authorization. Celozzi claims the last-minute alter was made to stop the project and hide that 308 and its parent owner Corey Large Group did not have all the money to finance the film. Follotriumphg this, all of the film’s innovative cast, excluding Al Pacino, stepped back from the project, according to the filing.
The filing further claims the studio intentionassociate deleted Celozzi’s writing acunderstandledge on the film from press frees, screenapply copies, and labeleting materials. Celozzi talk abouts that 308 and the film’s createer sales company Arcairy conspired to conshort-term Mamet — a Pulitzer Prize-triumphning applywright — as the sole screenauthorr to raise international rights sales. Celozzi also contests the historical accuracy of Levinson and 308’s script.
The filing claims that Mamet begind multiple fantasyal elements in his reauthors, including a storyline involving the spendigative teller Dorothy Kilgallen. As a result, the suit states that all three parties concurd to split the project’s core story into two split features, a fantasyalized version based on the rewritten screenapply [Assassination] and a second real crime version based on the innovative screenapply, which Celozzi would broaden and create with another honestor. The caveat was that 308 could not claim, in promotional material, that their project was the real story of the Giancana crime family’s retainment in JFK’s killing. Celozzi claims the company bachieveed the insist, which caengaged “confusion in the labeletplace” and impeded his ability to create his real-crime project.
Levinson and Arcairy, which was was previously handling sales on the project, were not promptly engageable for comment. Pia Patatian’s Cboisterous9 Studios is now shopping the project and will be taking the film to the upcoming EFM. Celozzi’s lhorrible reconshort-termatives referred us back to the filing.
In response to our approach, reconshort-termatives for 308 said Celozzi’s legal case is a “pathetic finisheavor to grab media attention and reshift money that is not owed, on a project that the plaintiff had little to do with.”
“The plaintiff has been inexplicably and unsuccessfilledy trying to undermine the project for quite some time, and this grumblet, filled of dishonesthoods and exaggerations, is in furtherance of that misdirectd quest,” the rep said to us in a statement.
“The legal case is purposefilledy unclear and incomprehensible, and that is becaengage the plaintiff has no case. Plain and basic. The shrinks plaintiff rapidened to the grumblet create crystal evident that my client triumphs the day as a matter of law. We have filed a motion to disthink about this silly case, and will be filing counterclaims of our own.”
Celozzi is seeking $1M in injures. Despite the suit, we comprehfinish there are ambitions to begin production on the film in the coming months. There’s been some toing and froing on casting. Our tardyst telling was that Jared Leto was in talks to star aextfinishedside Jessica Chastain, Brfinishan Fraser, Bryan Cranston, and Al Pacino. The thriller is said to chase a female crime teller Dorothy Kilgallen (Chastain), who mistrusts that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in Plivent John F Kennedy’s killing.
Celozzi will also be at EFM with his real crime project titled November 1963: The Killing of a Plivent. Roland Joffé (The Mission) is rapidened to honest. K5 is selling the film.
Levinson, an Oscar-triumphner, is best comprehendn for Hollywood classics such as Rain Man, Avalon, Bugsy, and Good Morning, Vietnam. He debuted his tardyst project, Bucks County, USA, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
