I can't believe Tom Hanks is playing me in the "House of Spritzler"

What a load of crap! Bruce Willis wasn't available?

The Gucci Family Isn’t a Fan of ‘House of Gucci’

The new film starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver is ‘extremely painful’ and ‘an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today,’ says the heirs of Aldo Gucci

In ‘House of Gucci,’ Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Reggiani, who was sentenced to 29 years in prison for arranging the killing of her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci.

By Jennifer Calfas

Nov. 30, 2021 3:00 pm ET

The Guccis have a problem with “House of Gucci.”

The heirs of Aldo Gucci, the former president and chairman of the Italian fashion brand, called the 2021 film starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver an inaccurate portrayal of their family’s history, noting the film’s production team didn’t consult them.

In a statement, the family criticized the film’s depiction of events decades ago that, the family said, inaccurately portrayed the Guccis as “ignorant and insensitive to the world around them.”

“The film conveys a narrative that is anything but accurate,” the family wrote in a statement. “This is extremely painful from a human point of view and an insult to the legacy on which the brand is built today.”

“House of Gucci,” directed by famed filmmaker Ridley Scott, opened in theaters over Thanksgiving weekend. Inspired by true events and the 2001 book by journalist Sara Gay Forden, the story follows the rise and fall of the Gucci family and is filled with drama, familial betrayal and murder.

Representatives for Mr. Scott, Scott Free Productions, Mr. Scott’s production company attached to the film, and United Artists didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A representative for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer declined to comment.

Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider who married into the family and was sentenced to 29 years in prison in 1998 for arranging the killing of her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, who was murdered in 1995. He is played by Adam Driver in the film.

The film also features Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Jared Leto as Aldo, Rodolfo and Paolo Gucci, respectively, and Salma Hayek as Pina Auriemma, Patrizia’s psychic who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for organizing Maurizio’s murder.

The real-life Gucci family criticized the depictions of women at the center of Maurizio’s murder, who the family said were “painted not only in the film but also in the statements from cast members as a victim trying to survive in a masculine and chauvinistic corporate culture.”

They defended the family business as “always inclusive,” with women filling high positions in the 1980s.

“The Gucci family lives by honouring the work of its predecessors, the memory of whom does not deserve to be upset merely to put on a fictional show that does not do justice to its protagonists,” the statement said. “The Gucci family reserves the right to take any action necessary to protect the name, image and dignity of themselves and their loved ones.”

Over the weekend, the film debuted in third place with a healthy gross of $21.8 million. The movie, which runs more than two hours and concerns a historical incident that few moviegoers were aware of, is an outlier in a box-office market that has seen few movies outside of superhero epics break out. In a normal year, the “House of Gucci” opening would be considered underwhelming, but in a market still reeling from the pandemic, theater owners took it as an encouraging sign.

Heading into its release, awards prognosticators predicted the movie could be a major player in the Oscar race, though reviews have been mixed, with critics praising Lady Gaga’s performance but finding the overall film uneven.

—Erich Schwartzel contributed to this article.