While fans are excited about Lady Gaga and Adam Driver’s forthcoming film The House of Gucci, the great-grandchildren of Gucci founder Guccio Gucci are less than thrilled.
The grandchildren were so dissatisfied by early photos from the set that they reached out to Ridley Scott and requested the legendary director “respect their family legacy,” the Associated Press writes. The House of Gucci tells the story of the murder of Gucci fashion house head, Maurizio Gucci.
“We are truly disappointed. I speak on behalf of the family,” Maurizio’s second cousin Patrizia Gucci told the AP. “They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system. … Our family has an identity, privacy. We can talk about everything, but there is a borderline that cannot be crossed.”
Patrizia revealed she tried to contact Scott’s wife Giannina Facio in hopes of gaining a better understanding of what exactly the film focuses on, though she hasn’t heard back. Patrizia is concerned the project will delve into the intimate details of the Gucci heirs’ lives.
Patrizia said the family will figure out the next steps after watching the movie, and are largely worried about “the casting of top actors to play family members whose stories intersect little with Maurizio Gucci’s murder, the lack of current contact with Scott’s production company, and inaccuracies they see in the book on which the film is based,” AP writes.
Driver is set to portray Maurizio and Gaga will play his ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani, who hired a hitman and arranged Maurizio’s 1995 assassination outside his office. Reggiani spent 16 years in prison for her role in the murder.
Al Pacino will appear as Aldo Gucci, and Jared Leto as Paolo Gucci. Both helped elevate the luxury house, with Aldo establishing brick-and-mortar stores in Rome and New York, and Paolo conceiving Gucci’s double-G logo. Patrizia Gucci and the family seem to be offended by the representation of their family members.
“My grandfather was a very handsome man, like all the Guccis, and very tall, blue eyes and very elegant. He is being played by Al Pacino, who is not very tall already, and this photo shows him as fat, short, with sideburns, really ugly. Shameful, because he doesn’t resemble him at all,” she said. She said she was also “offended” by Leto’s Paolo Gucci, who has sloppy hair and wears a lilac corduroy suit, which isn’t how she remembers him.
The fashion house is now owned by the French corporation Kering, which has opened its archives for Scott and his company to use.
