Al Pacino joins ‘Gotti’ film as mobster Dellacroce

After making a name for himself playing fictional mobster Michael Corleone in the blockbuster film trilogy “The Godfather,” actor Al Pacino will now be portraying a real one.

The 71-year-old actor, who was unknown before being cast in “The Godfather” in 1972, has joined the cast of “Gotti: Three Generations,” playing Neil Dellacroce, the Gambino crime family underboss and Gotti associate, the film’s producers said on Tuesday.

Pacino was Oscar-nominated for both “The Godfather” and “The Godfather; Part II” but won his first Oscar only years later for the 1992 film “Scent of a Woman”.

In “Gotti,” Pacino joins John Travolta as the late John Gotti, Joe Pesci as Gotti’s close friend Angelo Ruggiero and Lindsay Lohan as Kim Gotti, wife of Gotti’s namesake son.

Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, and their daughter Ella Bleu, will portray Gotti Sr.’s wife Victoria and their daughter, Angel, respectively.

The film will tell the story of John Gotti, the infamous American mobster who became boss of the New York Gambino crime family and the relationship with his family and son, John Gotti Jr., who himself rose to head the Gambinos and sold the rights to his life story.

Gotti, the so-called “Teflon Don,” died of cancer in 2002 while serving a life term for murder, racketeering, extortion and tax evasion.

The part of John Gotti, Jr. has yet to be cast. Shooting is due to begin later in 2011 with Barry Levinson directing.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – (Editing by Jill Serjeant)