JFK assassination film seen by way of the lens of an Italian-American mob wraps filming in Winnipeg

[ad_1] Nicholas Celozzi has spent a lot of his life revisiting the occasions main as much as the assassination of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

Hushed tales crammed his childhood dwelling. Conversations along with his uncle Joseph [Pepe] Giancana, brother to Chicago Mob boss Sam Giancana, later helped make clear his household's doable involvement in one of the crucial debated moments in American historical past.

After many years of movie and tv portrayals of Sam Giancana, Celozzi is reconceptualizing the 1963 taking pictures of Kennedy with a give attention to the foremost gamers within the Chicago Outfit, a robust Italian-American legal group.

For Celozzi, his newest screenwriting endeavour is about greater than telling one other assassination story. It is about household.

"My household, my cousins, actually bought bored with folks utilizing our identify, monetizing our identify and telling a pretend story," Celozzi mentioned in an interview.

<img loading="lazy" alt="Two men sit on chair at a movie set." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600651.1754237189!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600651.1754237189!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600651.1754237189!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600651.1754237189!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600651.1754237189!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600651.1754237189!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.2579957356076759" data-cy="image-img"/> Producer and author Nicholas Celozzi, left, and producer Kevin DeWalt are seen on this undated handout photograph, on the set of November 1963 in Winnipeg. (Allen Fraser, November 1963/The Canadian Press) "These aren't fictional folks ... they're actual folks. They're susceptible, they've nerves, they make errors, they don't seem to be fairly certain about issues."

Sam Giancana, head of the Chicago Outfit within the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, was extensively recognized for his ties to the Kennedy household. He was gunned down in his dwelling in 1975, and his killing stays unsolved.

Many have speculated the mob group additionally performed a task in Kennedy's assassination, and that is explored in Celozzi's November 1963, which started filming in Winnipeg this summer season.

Counting on Pepe Giancana's tales, Celozzi focuses on the 48 hours main as much as the assassination.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A red car is on a street, being filmed by a film crew." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600657.1754237215!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600657.1754237215!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600657.1754237215!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600657.1754237215!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600657.1754237215!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600657.1754237215!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.4993646759847523" data-cy="image-img"/> Producers selected Winnipeg over different main cities comparable to Atlanta and New Orleans partly due to its Change District neighbourhood. They mentioned the town is an ideal stand-of Chicago in the course of the Nineteen Sixties. (Allen Fraser,November 1963/The Canadian Press) Giancana, a fill-in driver for his brother, had been a fly on the wall within the days main as much as the assassination, mentioned Celozzi, who can be one of many producers on the impartial movie.

Many conversations led to what Celozzi calls the "Pepe chronicles," a sequence of tales detailing the household's Mob ties.

"I used to be at all times conscious of who they had been. These aren't issues that everyone simply type of goes dwelling and talks about. It is an consciousness. It is type of a wierd actuality that you simply're born into," mentioned Celozzi.

Pepe Giancana died within the mid-'90s, leaving his tales with Celozzi.

Drive for honesty The author mentioned he knew he needed to do one thing to honour his household's historical past with out degrading them to caricatures usually present in Mob flicks. So he started working with Sam Giancana's daughter Bonnie Giancana to craft the script.

Over the course of a number of years and rewrites, Celozzi mentioned they labored to make sure each element was correct.

"I wanted to maintain that trustworthy with the story Pepe gave me, or why do it in any respect? If I wasn't going to be truthful to what he gave me, there was no objective in me doing it," mentioned Celozzi.

He introduced veteran Canadian producer Kevin DeWalt of Minds Eye Leisure on board to provide the film, which wrapped taking pictures in Winnipeg final week and goes into post-production in Saskatchewan.

"I do not assume the household's happy with what occurred ... it was essential for them to inform the reality earlier than they die," DeWalt mentioned.

The forged contains John Travolta, Dermot Mulroney and Mandy Patinkin and is directed by Academy Award nominated English filmmaker Roland Joffe.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A group of people film inside a dark room. " srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600658.1754237306!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600658.1754237306!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600658.1754237306!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600658.1754237306!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600658.1754237306!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600658.1754237306!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.4993646759847523" data-cy="image-img"/> The set of the movie "November 1963" is seen in Winnipeg. The movie options 1,500 extras and 75 to 80 interval vehicles to precisely painting the time interval. (Allen Fraser,November 1963/The Canadian Press) When it got here time to select a location that might mimic Nineteen Sixties Chicago and the landmark Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the place Kennedy was killed, producers selected Winnipeg over different main cities comparable to Atlanta and New Orleans partly due to its Change District neighbourhood. Producers determined Winnipeg was an ideal stand-in for the Windy Metropolis.

Dealey Plaza, and the well-known Grassy Knoll, was constructed from scratch at Birds Hill Provincial Park, northeast of Winnipeg.

The movie options 1,500 extras and 75 to 80 interval vehicles to precisely painting the time interval.

DeWalt mentioned he expects viewers might be blown away by the movie's capability to deliver a brand new degree of authenticity and validity to the second in historical past.

<img loading="lazy" alt="A film crew is operating a camera." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600652.1754237323!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D300 300w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600652.1754237323!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D460 460w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600652.1754237323!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D620 620w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600652.1754237323!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D780 780w,https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600652.1754237323!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=Resize%3D1180 1180w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 300px,(max-width: 460px) 460px,(max-width: 620px) 620px,(max-width: 780px) 780px,(max-width: 1180px) 1180px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/1.7600652.1754237323!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/film-november-1963-20250803.jpg?im=" style="aspect-ratio:1.4993646759847523" data-cy="image-img"/> The forged contains John Travolta, Dermot Mulroney and Mandy Patinkin and is directed by Academy Award nominated English filmmaker Roland Joffe. (Allen Fraser, November 1963/The Canadian Press) "Individuals will stroll out of the theatre with their very own impressions about what all of it means," he mentioned.

"On the finish of the day, not less than we have given them the instruments for one among these items that is been informed, and so they could make their very own impressions by way of how they really feel about it."

When requested if he thinks the movie would possibly ruffle feathers with historians, governments or Mob members, Celozzi mentioned that is not his purpose.