Tnt Mobs Up With Six-hour Giancana Tale

A six-hour limited series about Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana has found its way to TNT.

The cable network confirmed last week that it is in development on the untitled project, from Mark Wolper and Warner Bros. Television, that tells the story behind the powerful mob leader and his role in high-level politics and Hollywood as well as his struggle to raise a family at the same time.

As the top syndicate boss in Chicago in the 1950s and '60s, Giancana was known for his ties to John F. Kennedy — he's reputed to have played a key role in helping Kennedy take the White House in 1960 — and his friendships with celebrities like Frank Sinatra.

After Giancana's wife died as a result of a rheumatic heart, he was left to raise three daughters while carrying out his role as a mob leader. Giancana died in 1975.

Wolper — who is president of the Wolper Organization, which is based at Warners — revealed last year that he had optioned rights to the life story of Giancana and his family with plans to develop a six-hour miniseries for Warners and shop it to various networks (HR 7/29).

Wolper is executive producing the project. Ron Samuels also is on board as co-executive producer, while Dimitri Logothetis and Nick Celozzi are writing and co-executive producing. Warners is the co-producer.

The rights were optioned from Logothetis and Celozzi, who had acquired them from Giancana's daughter Francine, who is Celozzi's cousin.

Multiple Emmy nominee Wolper's credits as executive producer include CBS' upcoming movie "Just Like the Ones," starring Mary Tyler Moore and Jennifer Esposito, as well as the TNT miniseries "Salem's Lot" and the Showtime series "Penn & Teller: Bullshit!"