Emilia Clarke is set to lead An Ideal Wife, the new film from Good Luck to You, Leo Grande director Sophie Hyde where she will play the Irish children’s author and Oscar Wilde’s wife, Constance Lloyd.
13.10.2022 - 15:21 / variety.com
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s David di Donatello Awards are launching an innovative ecological initiative under which they will monitor the environmental sustainability of productions in the running for the country’s top film prizes. The move is being touted as a first of this type by Davids organizers who are hoping it can become a game changer in prompting companies in Italy and across Europe to reduce the environmental impact of their film productions. To monitor the carbon footprint and other green aspects of movies submitted to the Davids, the organisation has forged a partnership with EcoMuvi, an Italian protocol that certifies a film production’s ecological sustainability from pre-product through post.
Starting with films entered in the 2023 edition of the Italian prizes, the David di Donatello Academy will be asking production companies of submitted entries to fill out a detailed questionnaire prepared by EcoMuvi. This will be done on a voluntary basis, with no obligation to adhere to the initiative. EcoMuvi will then analyse the provided data that will be used to compile an overall report on the state of sustainable film production in Italy. “The David Awards will therefore become the first national film academy in Europe to monitor the progress of national sustainable production,” the org. said in a statement. In the U.K. a BAFTA-affiliated organization called Albert has been encouraging sustainability in film and TV production through The Climate Content Pledge, which has been signed by CEOs from 12 of the U.K.’s biggest media brands, who account for 70% of U.K. audiences’ consumption of film and TV. David di Donatello Academy president Piera Detassis in the statement called the move “a
Emilia Clarke is set to lead An Ideal Wife, the new film from Good Luck to You, Leo Grande director Sophie Hyde where she will play the Irish children’s author and Oscar Wilde’s wife, Constance Lloyd.
“Euphoria” and “The White Lotus” actress Sydney Sweeney will star in the upcoming psychological horror film “Immaculate,” for Black Bear Pictures, the company announced on Friday.The film reunites Sweeney with director Michael Mohan (“The Voyeurs”), who will direct from a script by Andrew Lobel.Sweeney stars in the film as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Her warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside is soon interrupted as it becomes clearer to Cecilia that her new home harbors some dark and horrifying secrets.Principal photography will commence in January 2023.Sweeney and Jonathan Davino will produce for Fifty-Fifty Films alongside David Bernad (“The Mule,” “The White Lotus”), who developed the project with Sweeney following their collaboration on “The White Lotus,” along with Teddy Schwarzman and Michael Heimler producing for Black Bear.
is no stranger to reinvention, and for her October 24 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the singer-songwriter seems to have reinvented herself as . Swift's three-piece black-and-white chevron Dorothee Schumacher suit pairs boot-cut trousers with a tailored blazer over a mock-neck turtleneck. She paired the look with a cherry-red lip (natch), hoops, and chunky black boots. Swift's ‘fit is a note-perfect exemplar of a look Keaton perfected in the 1970s and has maintained throughout every decade since.
In yet another sign of the continued resilience and determination of the Ukrainian people, the fifth edition of the Ukrainian National Film Critics Circle Award, dubbed Kinokolo, pressed ahead with its ceremony on Thursday, in spite of an ongoing war in the country.
K.J. Yossman Amber Anderson, Greta Bellamacina and Tamsin Egerton can be seen bonding in wedding dresses alongside co-stars Jessica Plummer, Josette Simon and Bebe Cave in first look images from upcoming feature “Tell That to the Winter Sea.” Anderson (“Peaky Blinders”) and Bellamacina (“This England”) star in the film as Scarlett and Jo, two teenage dance students whose intense friendship blossoms into a romantic one before running its course. But when the duo reconvene decades later on the eve of Jo’s wedding – to a man – it turns out deep feelings still remain. In another scene from the film the group, still clad in wedding dresses, enjoy a candle-lit dinner.
Naman Ramachandran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio will be presented with the European Film Academy’s Award for European Innovative Storytelling for his miniseries “Exterior Night.” The director will be guest of honor at the 35th European Film Awards ceremony on Dec. 10 at Reykjavik. In “Exterior Night,” Bellocchio returns to the case of the kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978, a subject that he tackled in his feature film “Good Morning, Night,” for which he received the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 European Film Awards. The academy has also revealed nominations in several categories for the awards.
Brent Lang Executive Editor UFC Strawweight Champion Rose Namajunas’s life story will be the subject of “Thug Rose: Mixed Martial Artist,” a new documentary that will debut at the Austin Film Festival before premiering on Fight Pass, the combat sport’s official streaming service. The film was produced by UFC, which hopes it will be the first of many such projects. “We want to do as many these as we possibly can,” Crowley Sullivan, vice president and general manager of Fight Pass, told Variety. “Throughout the history of this sport there are all kinds of personalities and accomplishments that we want to highlight. There are so many stories of athletes rising from modest beginnings to become iconic figures that we want to tell.”
Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age drama The Fabelmans has been announced as the opening film of 44th Cairo International Film Festival, running from November 13 to 22.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s storied Titanus studio, producers of myriad golden era Cinema Italiano works, is getting a reboot and reviving its production side with several projects in development, including a contemporary sequel of Dario Argento’s supernatural chiller “Phenomena.” Established in 1904 by Gustavo Lombardo, Titanus was a true Italian major, which during the 1960s forged a partnership with MGM. They slowed down considerably from the mid-1960s onwards after Luchino Visconti’s lavish Sicily-set costumer “The Leopard” (1963), starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, went way over budget. Since the mid-1980s the studio’s output has been on a much smaller scale, and primarily for TV.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Exports of Italian TV series and non-theatrical movies have more than doubled over the past five years thanks in part to the rise of local originals commissioned by streamers, just as investments in production of local scripted content are also increasing. That is the key finding of a report unveiled at Rome’s MIA market by Italy’s producers association APA, which estimates the total value of Italy’s TV exports in 2021 at roughly €100 million ($97 million). The total cost of all types of Italian TV and platform content produced in 2021 reached €1.4 billion ($1.36 billion) in 2021, which is a 37% increase compared with 2017, according to the APA report.
An enthusiastic rendition of Happy Birthday rang through the auditorium at the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio as the London audience was informed Gregory Mann, the film’s lead voice actor, had just turned 13.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent On a cobblestone-paved square in the ancient town of Tivoli, north-east of Rome, in late September, a large crew is prepping to shoot a key scene in Italian period drama “La Storia,” which will be pubcaster RAI’s biggest event show next year. Based on a bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – “La Storia” is set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy. The eight-episode series, being unveiled by Beta Film to buyers at Rome’s MIA content market, stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who earlier this year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Former RAI CEO Fabrizio Salini – who prior to running the Italian pubcaster held top posts at Sky, Fox International Channels, and Discovery Italy – has joined Italy’s Minerva Pictures, which is stepping up its expansion from film into the realms of TV and streaming content. The veteran TV exec will become a board member at Rome-based Minerva, the production, digital publishing and distribution company headed by Gianluca Curti. Minerva has been branching out into TV since 2019 when Santo Versace, who is the older brother of Gianni and Donatella Versace, decided to invest in the company, becoming chairman of its board. Salini, besides joining the Minerva board, will be in charge of the company’s “business activities with broadcasters and streamers,” said Curti, who added that the exec has a mandate to explore opportunities that go beyond film, TV series and docs.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Production is underway in Italy on the Italian instalment of Prime Video’s global “Citadel” spy thriller franchise, produced by the Russo Brothers, with Matilda De Angelis cast as the lead. De Angelis, a rising Italian star, made her international breakthrough in Susanne Bier’s “The Undoing,” alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. She more recently appeared with Liev Schrieber in the Ernest Hemingway adaptation “Across The River and Into The Trees,” directed by Paula Ortiz. The “Citadel” start-of-production in Italy and casting announcement was made at Rome’s MIA content market during an Amazon Studios panel.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has announced high-profile Italian original documentary series “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” written and directed by Britain’s Mark Lewis, who won an Emmy for the docu-series “Don’t F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer.” The streaming giant has also dropped a trailer for the docuseries, produced by British TV production company Raw. The show will premiere globally on Netflix on Oct. 20. The series is the latest probe into a case that started on June 22, 1983, when Emanuela Orlandi, a 15 year-old girl living in Vatican City, disappeared under mysterious circumstances that are believed to have involved the Vatican. The case made headlines around the world.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French production powerhouse Studiocanal is moving into the Italian production market by joining forces with Rome-based shingle Elsinore Film with plans to co-develop and coproduce a slate of scripted and unscripted content for the Italian and international market. Elsinore Film is a boutique outfit headed by Annamaria Morelli (pictured, left), a former head of production at Italian streamer TimVision, who is known for her scouting activity. Morelli has had a hand in shepherding “Skam Italia,” the Italian adaptation of the Nordic drama series that’s a hit in Italy. She was more recently among producers of “Amanda,” a quirky teen dramedy about female friendship by newcomer Carolina Cavalli, that launched positively in September from the Venice fest’s Horizons section.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Nordisk Film, the deep-pocketed Copenhagen-based Scandinavian film powerhouse, has launched an advanced LED virtual production stage. Named the Shortcut LED Stage, the venue will provide advanced virtual production services for TV, film, commercial shoots, music videos and live events from Scandinavian banners that are owned by Nordisk Film, as well as other companies around the world. The first film productions that have used the Shortcut LED Stage include “Boundless,” the next opus in the “Department Q” franchise, as well as Ole Bornedal’s psychological thriller “Nightwatch – Demons are Forever,” among other projects.
Italian producer Lorenzo Mieli gave a spirited and often humorous rundown of his career as a producer working with directors such as Luca Guadagnino and Paolo Sorrentino during a keynote talk at the London Film Festival Monday.
David Bowie's death, and Iman says she still thinks about her husband «every day and every minute.»«I have a necklace that I'm wearing under here that has his name on it,» the supermodel told Hoda Kotb during an appearance on on Wednesday. «I've worn it since that first week after David passed away.»The memento allows the 67-year-old to keep Bowie close to her heart since, to her, he'll «always be» her husband.Iman and Bowie met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend and got married in Florence, Italy, on June 6, 1992.