Regina-based Minds Eye Entertainment is in production on November 1963 from Academy Award-nominated English director Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields).

The film, which explores the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, began principal photography in Winnipeg on June 18. The film is expected to wrap in early August.

November 1963 is produced by Minds Eye president and CEO Kevin DeWalt (pictured right) and the film’s writer Nicholas Celozzi (pictured left). Garson, Man.-based Carrie Wilkins is a co-producer on the project and international sales are handled by Daniel Bour of Germany’s K5 International.

The film stars John Travolta (Pulp Fiction), Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty), Dermot Mulroney (Anyone But You), Mandy Patinkin (The Princess Bride), Jefferson White (Yellowstone) and Thomas Fiscella (Jersey Boys National Tour).

Celozzi, the grand-nephew of mobster and Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana, wrote the screenplay based on the accounts of Joseph “Pepe” Giancana, who spent two days with Sam prior to Kennedy’s assassination. According to a release, the film also draws on eyewitness testimonies and declassified Kennedy files.

November 1963 is produced with the participation of Manitoba Film & Music and Creative Saskatchewan.

Deadline previously reported that Celozzi had shopped a true crime project, titled November 1963: The Killing of a President, at the European Film Market earlier this year, with Joffé attached as director and K5 as the sales agent. That same report states that Celozzi filed a lawsuit over a similar project on the Kennedy assassination, claiming breach of contract by the film’s financier.

Photo by Allen Fraser