SINATRA KIDNAPPING TO GET FILM TREATMENT.

Byline: - Fred Shuster

The Sinatra family has mixed reactions to news that Columbia is set to shoot a movie based on the real-life botched kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. 35 years ago.

The company this week purchased the rights to a New Times Los Angeles story detailing the 1963 attempt to kidnap Sinatra Jr. and extract ransom money from the Chairman of the Board.

Nancy Sinatra said some members of her family were ``disgusted because we remember back (to) when we were really terrified.''

However, she added, other Sinatras were amused at the prospect of the movie because the crime was so badly botched, ``and I went to school with two of those clowns.''

The kidnapping took place in December 1963 in Lake Tahoe, where Frank Jr. was working as a lounge singer. The plan went from bad to worse.

Three men, including a school friend of Nancy named Barry Keenan, first robbed Sinatra Jr. because the gang didn't have money for gas to get to the hideaway in Los Angeles 425 miles away.

The subsequent events were described by Keenan in a new biography of Ol' Blue Eyes, ``Sinatra: Behind the Legend'' (Birch Lane Press; $27.50) by J. Randy Taraborrelli.

The kidnappers demanded the odd amount of $240,000, but while picking up the dough, one of the conspirators got spooked and ran away. Problems among the trio quickly mounted, and Sinatra Jr. was freed unharmed on the Mulholland Drive overpass near the San Diego Freeway.

In the end, Keenan spent 4-1/2 years in jail, and the others got 3-1/2 years.

Variety reported that Betty Thomas (``Private Parts'') will direct and share producing credit with a partner.