Prime exposure: Ewan McGregor to star in 'Lodi'

Apr. 21—Lodi is about to get some Prime exposure.

Entertainment website www.variety.com reported this week that Amazon Prime is developing a series entitled "Lodi," based on the story of local car dealership owner Lou Peters and the role he played in bringing down a Mafia boss.

The series will star Ewan McGregor, known mostly for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel series and Disney+ series.

McGregor will portray Peters, owner of Peters Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC, who in 1977 was offered a buyout of his property from a local real estate developer. Although his business was not for sale, Peters said he'd accept $2 million. Two days later, the developer returned and said his clients had agreed to the price.

While the developer initially would not disclose his client's name, Peters eventually learned it was Mafia boss Joe Bonnano, Sr.

Peters drove to San Jose and met Bonnano's sons, who offered him $100,000 a year to purchase as many as 14 auto dealerships along the West Coast.

He realized the Mafia wanted to launder money through the dealerships, and without giving the Bonnanos an answer, he drove home and informed Lodi's then-police chief Mark Yates about the meeting.

Peters contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation' Stockton office, where agent Bob Anderson convinced him to go undercover to collect information on the Bonnano family.

He spent three years undercover, and was the first private citizen in the United States to infiltrate the Mafia.

It all came to an end in March of 1979 when the FBI raided Bonnano Sr.'s Tuscon home. He went on trial the following year and was convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice that September.

Peters succumbed to cancer in 1981. He received a military funeral and is buried in Lodi.

His daughter Lori wrote a book entitled "God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me" that was released in November of 2021. It describes living in Lodi in the 1970s, her fears about religion, and discovering her father had been an informant for the FBI for three years.

Information on the rest of the cast for "Lodi" has not been disclosed.

The series is being produced by McGregor and Timothy Greenberg, the latter of which is known for "The Daily Show."

McGregor rose to fame in 1997 as Renton in the film "Trainspotting," and has since been in films such as "Moulin Rouge!" opposite Nicole Kidman, "Black Hawk Down," Christopher Robin" as the title character, and "Doctor Sleep" the sequel to "The Shining" as Danny Torrance.