John Travolta calls reports about Gotti being dropped as 'fake news'

Los Angeles: Actor John Travolta has slammed the "fake news" regarding his film 'Gotti' being dropped by Lionsgate ten days prior to its domestic release.

Travolta stars as John Gotti in the Kevin Connolly-directed film, which also features his wife Kelly Preston and daughter Ella Bleu Travolta.

Travolta said that he and Lionsgate had agreed to cancel its rollout, and he had then bought it back off them so it could get a wider release with a different distributor.

"Unfortunately, the reports were speculation bordering on fake news. Lionsgate was planning on a minimal release, and I did an investigation into people who might have the interest and financial wherewithal to better release it.

"... It wasn't dropped. It wasn't easy to get Lionsgate to give it up. They said no, twice, and I literally begged them to reconsider and they finally and generously let it go. We signed this deal about three weeks ago, to purchase back the film from Lionsgate. Our mistake was we should have said something right then and discussed our plan for the film. We didn't anticipate this speculation that is so grossly wrong," Travolta told Deadline.

The film is about Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family who spent the last decade of his life in prison before dying of throat cancer in 2002.