Will Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro's Next Mob Movie Be MimiArt Films’ "Dino Cellini?"

March 3, 2010 - PRLog -- Hollywood California, At this year's Berlin Film Festival, Martin Scorsese, while promoting his film "Shutter Island," said to the audience; "You want more Mafioso movies … I can't believe this...There is a possibility that Bob DeNiro and I are talking about something that has to do with ‘THAT’ world..... from the vantage point of  older men looking back."

Film Buffs from around the world immediately predicted that the movie the two were considering is the story of Dino Cellini, currently in Development at MimiArt Films, an Independent Art-House Film Company.

DINO CELLINI-The Movie- tells the story of the man who would become "The Prolific Casino Czar" for the Mob, and Meyer Lansky's top lieutenant. Cellini would rise through the "Mob" ranks and provide the largest revenue stream for the Mafia during the 1950's & 60's, raking in untold millions of dollars from the casinos the mob ran.

Based on a true story, the movie, chronicles Dino Cellini's life from the impoverished son of a Steubenville Ohio Barber, during the Depression years, to how he rose through the "Mob" ranks and became Meyer Lansky's top lieutenant. By intellect, and not by gangster tactics, amongst the likes of the Bugsy Siegel types, he became the preeminent casino mastermind. Casino Operators would refer to him as the brains of Casino Operations, and in Vegas, they labeled him as "The Father of Las Vegas."

As a youngster, Cellini would learn the casino trade, in Steubenville Ohio, as a dice cheat/"mechanic," and as a "Bust-out" croupier/dealer for the "House," in smalltime cigar stores alongside singer/actor Dino Crocetti, better known as Dean Martin.

During the early 1920’s & 30’s Steubenville’s cigar stores were fronts for gambling operations, bookmaking, and the numbers rackets. Steel mill workers from Steubenville and nearby Youngstown, Ohio would frequent these Cigar stores after their shifts, betting their  paychecks mostly on Craps (dice) and Blackjack. These cigar stores would often bring in "mechanics," specialists in manipulating the dice and cheating maneuvers, to man their crap tables. The mechanic would ward off undesirable customers, break (bust-out) winning streaks of lucky customers, and hustle those with lots of money out of their money. Cellini was known for his talent with dice and eventually became the youngest "bust out" man in Steubenville.

Eventually, by his sheer mathematical genius, self discipline, class, style, elegance, his charm and his charisma, Cellini would go on to parlay his overall talent to become the Mafia's Premier Casino Chief Executive.

As Lansky's top Deputy, Cellini would create the Mafia's casino haven in Havana Cuba in the 1950's. During those years, Cuba was a much greater cash cow than Las Vegas.

Ousted by Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, Cellini would go on to develop lavish casinos in London, the Bahamas, and the Netherlands. And, under the guise of a Bahamas company, Mary Carter Paints (which morphed into Resorts International), he, along others, helped to lobby to bring legalized casinos to Atlantic City New Jersey, which, at that time, became the second state in the US, next to Nevada, to offer legal casinos.

This character driven fictional drama of Dino Cellini is a Biopic, based on the book "The Master Mechanic," by I.G. Broat, and adapted by Tony Vitale, Writer/Director of the feature "Kiss Me, Guido," and Ang Lee's gambling film, "One Last Ride."

This high profile action packed project was originally set to be produced by award winning producer Sam Spiegel over 25 years ago. The project was scrapped, however, when Spiegel passed away in December of 1985.

The producers of the Cellini movie have approached Cellini's life story from the perspective of old time mobsters looking back at Cellini's epic journey, and his rise through the Mob ranks; from Steubenville Ohio, to Cuba, and on to Las Vegas, where he eventually become known as the iconic "FATHER of LAS VEGAS."

Will Martin Scorsese and  Robert DeNiro's next Mob Movie Be MimiArt Films’ "Dino Cellini?" Stay Tuned! The movie is expected to be released by the end of next year for Oscar consideration in 2012. Fans are calling it; "The Next Blockbuster Since The Godfather!"

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MimiArt Films, LLC is an Art-house independent film company
founded in 2006 by a group of movie buffs and independent i
nvestors from New York and New Jersey.
MimiArt Films-"Where 'Art' and 'Film' Come Together!"