The infamous assassination of US President John F. Kennedy is going to be revisited onscreen again as Deadline reports Rain Man director Barry Levinson will helm Assassination with Al Pacino and Shia LaBeouf leading the film.
The JFK assassination is one of the most shocking moments in history with numerous conspiracy theories around what really happened and who was behind it. Assassination will follow one of those theories which states Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana ordered and arranged the assassination of JFK after he targeted organized crime in his presidency, betraying them after they helped put him into office.
Giancana himself has been at the center of many other theories which believe he and other mobsters were connected with the CIA in plots to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and possibly worked with the CIA to assassinate Kennedy. Giancana would be assassinated himself in 1975 after being extradited to the US for grand jury questioning where people have theorized he was killed for potentially turning against the mob or to cover up his CIA connections. Some of these theories have been verified whereas others are still up to debate.
Pacino will play Tony Accardo, a senior mob boss in Chicago. This will be a reunion with Levinson after their work on The Humbling, You Don’t Know Jack and Paterno. LaBeouf’s role has not yet been disclosed. The film is also said to star Viggo Mortensen, John Travolta, Rebecca Pidgeon and Courtney Love when it was announced earlier this year at the Cannes festival.
Assassination was originally going to be directed by David Mamet (Phil Spector) and he co-wrote the script with Giancana’s great-grandson Nicholas Celozzi. Levinson will still use their script, but also put his own stamp on it according to Deadline. Celozzi will produce with Corey Large (It Follows) and Jason Sosnoff (Wise Guys) with John Burnham and Jordan Nott executive producing.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
