Italy’s De Serio Brothers on CineMart-Selected Colonial-Era Drama ‘Prince Aden’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Jamie Lang Featuring in this year’s eight iteration of the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series, Italian drama “Belcanto” will hope to follow a trail blazed by former participating European standouts such as “Babylon Berlin,” “Freud,” “Furia,” and last year’s Series Mania winner “Blackport.”Co-created by the trio of Mariano Di Nardo, Antonio Manca and Federico Fava and produced by leading Italian distribution-production house Lucky Red, the series project is set in 1798, as 14-year-old Carolina, her 17-year-old sister Antonia and their mother Maria seek refuge in the city of Milan after stabbing their violent father to death.The elder sister dreams of becoming a renowned singer, much as her mother once hoped for when she was the girl’s age. However, an unhappy and often violent marriage waylaid young Maria, who is now willing to go the extreme lengths to ensure that her daughter is afforded every opportunity withheld from herself.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAmber Heard (“Aquaman”) and Spain’s Eduardo Noriega (“Vantage Point”) will star in 19th century-set supernatural thriller “In the Fire.”The film, which will shoot in Italy, is directed by Conor Allyn (“No Man’s Land”).Principal photography is set to start Feb. 21 in Italy’s Apulia region.

K.J. Yossman Actor Janet Montgomery (“This is Us”) and producer Tricia Small (“Salem”) have teamed with Blackbox Multimedia on a female-led period crime drama written by “Dracula” scribe Cole Haddon, Variety can reveal.Billed as a female version of The Godfather trilogy, “Aqua Tofana” was co-created by Montgomery and Small, who will also executive produce the high-end television series, which is set is 17th-century Italy.

Naman Ramachandran U.K. broadcaster BBC has acquired CNN‘s Primetime Emmy winning series “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.” The six-part series follows Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci as he travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines.

Sarah Palin, 58, and her new boyfriend Ron Dugay, 64, had previously been discrete about their relationship status but now have been spotting showing some PDA since the NHL legend confirmed they are dating. The politician and athlete were spotted holding hands as they walked down the streets of NYC on Friday, Feb. 11. Sarah wore a fitted black coat, leggings and a faux fir scarf as she held a rose, most likely bought for her by her beau who matched her wearing a dark grey jacket and black jeans. Click here to see the lovebirds in action.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Matteo Garrone, who was at the 2020 Berlinale with Roberto Benigni-starrer “Pinocchio,” is set to return to the director’s chair in March with coming-of-age adventure drama “Io Capitano,” on which France’s Pathé will be handling international distribution.Garrone’s new pic, whose title translates as “I, Captain,” will be shot in Italy, Morocco and Senegal, marking the first time, Garrone –– a two-time Cannes jury prize-winner, with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012 –– sets a feature film outside of Italy.As is customary with Garrone, story details of “Io Capitano” are being kept under wraps, besides the fact that he wrote the screenplay with regular collaborators Massimo Gaudioso and Andrea Tagliaferri and actor Massimo Ceccherini (“Pinocchio”), who also contributed to the “Pinocchio” screenplay.

Elizabeth Banks Pic Sells For Protagonist

EXCLUSIVE: Hallmark Movies & Mysteries has begun production on Always Amore, a new movie starring Autumn Reeser (The Wedding Veil) and Tyler Hynes (An Unexpected Christmas) for premiere this spring on Hallmark Channel. Oscar-nominated Patty McCormack (The Bad Seed) co-stars in the film, executive produced by celebrity chef, bestselling author and Emmy-winning TV host Giada De Laurentiis.

Emiliano De Pablos Media giant Mediaset has acquired Italian distribution rights to Spanish writer-director Benito Zambrano’s drama “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake,” produced and sold by Barcelona-based studio Filmax.News of the deal comes just before Filmax screens “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake” to buyers at this year’s online European Film Market.Described as high-quality cinema for adults and predominantly female audiences, “Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake” adapts the novel of the same title by screenwriter and casting specialist Cristina Campos. It has sold more than 250,000 copies worldwide.A member of  Spain’s generation of directors that broke out in the 1990s,  helping Spanish movies find far larger favor with audiences at home, Zambrano’s breakout debut, 1999’s “Alone,” won the Panorama Audience Award at Berlin.

Ethan Shanfeld Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley have joined Michael Mann’s racing film “Ferrari.”The big-budget biopic follows ex-racecar driver and auto manufacturing giant Enzo Ferrari in the summer of 1957. With his marriage in crisis over the mourning of a son, and the threat of bankruptcy looming over the company he and his wife built 10 years earlier, Ferrari embarks on a bold race — the Mille Miglia, 1,000 miles across Italy.Driver replaces Hugh Jackman, who had initially signed on to play the title character.

HanWay Films has closed several international deals on McCarthy, Václav Marhoul’s drama about the infamous U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, ahead of this month’s virtual European Film Market.

The secret’s out! Sarah Jessica Parker has been revealed as the top-secret designer of many of the heels in And Just Like That, particularly those from the faux-vintage label entitled Duchessa Gardini.

Mask up! Joy Behar, 79, went into the weekend with a warning for New Yorkers who may run into Sarah Palin, 57, as she’s been spotted in a few NYC hot spots, since testing positive for COVID-19. The comedian shaded the unvaccinated politician, while wishing viewers a good weekend on the Friday January 28 episode of the talk show. “Take a little time to enjoy The View, and if you see Sarah Palin, you better get tested,” she said.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s True Colours has taken international sales on “Perfect Strangers” director Paolo Genovese’s new movie, a comedy drama titled “The First Day of My Life.”The Rome-based sales company will be launching pre-sales at the upcoming online EFM market on Genovese’s latest concept pic, which has echoes of Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”Based on Genovese’s novel of the same title, which was a bestseller in Italy, “The First Day of My Life” revolves around four characters on the brink of taking their lives who make a pact with a stranger with supernatural powers, played by “The Great Beauty” star Toni Servillo. The mystery man gives them a chance to travel forward in time to see for a week how their friends and relatives would react to their deaths and what the world would be like without them.

Sarah Palin was spotted dining at a New York restaurant on Wednesday (January 26) after it was revealed she had tested positive for COVID-19 just two days earlier. The 57-year-old former Alaska governor, who is not vaccinated against the coronavirus, ate outdoors with a group of friends at the Italian hot spot Elio’s, making it her second visit to the establishment since Saturday, when she dined indoors without presenting a vaccination card. On Tuesday, she also dined at another eatery called Campagnola, per the Daily Mail. With the two most recent outings, the failed VP candidate appeared to be flouting local health and safety measures, which call for positive coronavirus cases to isolate for at least five days.

Meghan McCain called out Sarah Palin for going out to dinner in New York City just days after testing positive for COVID. The former The View co-host, 37, told Daily Mail on Jan. 27 that Sarah — who was Meghan’s late father John McCain’s running mate during the 2008 presidential election — was “reckless” and “stupid” for her decision. Sarah, 57, reportedly ate at Italian restaurant Elio’s on Saturday (Jan. 22) and sat inside, despite not being vaccinated. She tested positive for COVID on Monday (Jan. 24), but returned to the restaurant two days later (Jan. 26) and ate there again, this time outdoors.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentNaples-set young adult series “The Sea Beyond,” which depicts the world of a juvenile jail in the crime-ridden Italian city, is scoring a slew of international sales prompted by its phenomenal ratings on pubcaster RAI.Germany’s Beta Film, which is selling the show about kids behind bars produced by Rome-based Picomedia and RAI Fiction, has inked deals with WarnerMedia Latin America for HBO Max, Sweden’s free-to-air channel TV4, cabler HOT for Israel, and streamer Blu TV in Turkey.The deals mark a rare case of an Italian young adult series traveling abroad.Set in a youth detention center overlooking the bay of Naples, “The Sea Beyond” depicts a world populated by kids apparently without hope, “given that they mostly belong to [the Camorra] organized crime syndicate that Naples is known for,” said Picomedia chief Roberto Sessa, who added that the show also has “all the color and vitality of that city.” Instead, “It’s like the flip side of ‘Gomorrah’ in that it gives a sense of hope,” Sessa noted, because “there is light at the end of the tunnel for these kids.”Sessa also pointed out that they took some poetic license by making the youth penitentiary a place for both men and women who get to interact “with all the relationships and passions that stem from this.”The jail warden is a woman named Paola Vinci, played by Carolina Crescentini (“Bastards of Pizzofalcone”).Directed by Carmine Elia, Milena Cocozza, and Ivan Silvestrini, “The Sea Beyond” is now at its second season which debuted on RAI in mid-November 2021 both on the pubcaster’s linear RAI 2 channel and on its RAI Play streaming platform.It has become a minor phenomenon in Italy because it’s the first show that proved a