I’m not sure if John Travolta knew he’d be playing John Gotti when he signed up to play Robert Shapiro in the O.J. Simpson True Crime story, but from an aesthetic standpoint Travolta’s portrayal of Shapiro and Gotti look one in the same. John Gotti was such a towering figure in New York during the 70s and 80s that it’d be surprising if you didn’t know who he was. Nicknamed the ‘Teflon Don’, Gotti ruled the mob scene in NYC and became the boss of the Gambino crime family. Whenever it looked like the authorities were closing in on an airtight case, Gotti somehow got out of it, but like all of the bosses before him, Gotti did eventually get locked up and died in prison in 2002. Gotti will explore the mafia kingpin’s meteoritic rise and catastrophic fall, and will be directed by Kevin Connolly (E from Entourage). Gotti premieres December 15th.

-Ryan