Luca Bernabei Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Can Yaman has lined up his next role. The Turkish hearthrob will be playing the fictional pirate Sandokan in a reboot series that hopes to reintroduce the legendary character a new generation of viewers. The series will be adapted by the European production company Lux Vide and is based on the stories written by Emilio Salgari.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”), John Hannah (“The Mummy”) and British newcomer Alanah Bloor are set to join Turkish lead Can Yaman in “Sandokan,” Lux Vide’s reboot of the cult Italian TV series about the adventures of its titular pirate who, with his motley crew, fights against colonial powers in Southeast Asia. Shooting is set to start April 22 outside Rome on this high-end reboot of Italian writer Emilio Salgari’s exotic epic.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Prime Video has announced the full cast for action comedy show “Costiera” set on Italy’s iconic Amalfi Coast being directed by Emmy-winner Adam Bernstein (“30 Rock,” “Breaking Bad”) and featuring Jesse Williams (“Take Me Out”) as the lead. The ensemble cast for the English-language series being co-produced by Amazon Studios and Luca Bernabei for Lux Vide comprises British actor Jordan Alexandra (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” “The Winter King”) (pictured, center); Spain’s Alejandra Onieva (“Alta Mar”) (pictured, left); Italy’s Maria Chiara Giannetta (“Blanca”) (pictured, right); Antonio Gerardi; Tommaso Ragno (“Nostalgia”); Amanda Campana; Pierpaolo Spollon; Britain’s Sam Haygarth (“Jojo Rabbit”); and France’s Jean-Hugues Anglade (“Sink or Swim”).

Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy, Only Murders In The Building) will produce and star in Prime Video’s Costiera, an Italian action-drama series filmed in English and directed by Emmy award winner Adam Bernstein (Breaking Bad, Fargo). The series is currently in production.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Doc,” the Italian medical procedural that’s a local hit and and major export, is getting a theatrical outing in Italy prior to TV play thanks to a deal between production company Lux Vide and UCI Cinemas. In what is being touted as a milestone, the first two episodes of the show’s third season are set to screen in UCI Cinemas across Italy as an event release on Dec. 18 and 19, ahead of the full season release of “Doc” Jan.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Fremantle-owned Lux Vide production powerhouse is expanding its in-house studio capacity, unveiling a large new soundstage on Monday at its facilities in Formello outside Rome which will become a major new European physical production hub. Plans are underway for a total of seven state-of-the-art stages, plus a new post-production facility to be in place at Formello by year’s end creating a sprawling Lux Video studio area on more than 6,500 square meters of space (2,5 square miles) including the backlot. Lux Vide’s new Teatro 5 measuring more than 1150 square meters (more than 12,000 square feet) was inaugurated with Italy’s deputy culture minister Lucia Bergonzoni and other local authorities on hand alongside Lux CEO Luca Bernabei, Andrea Scrosati, Fremantle’s group COO and CEO continental Europe, and Lux’s honorary president Matilde Bernabei.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Emmy Award-winning director Adam Bernstein (“30 Rock,” “Fargo,” “Better Call Saul”) is set to helm new Prime Video Italy original “Costiera,” an English-language action drama set on Italy’s iconic Amalfi Coast. The high-end show is being co-produced by Amazon Studios and Luca Bernabei for Lux Vide, the prominent Italian company behind financial thriller “Devils” that is owned by Fremantle. Though production on “Costiera” is set to start on location this summer, the international cast is being kept under wraps. Under a highly innovative deal structure, Fremantle will handle global sales on “Costiera” in all territories outside of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal where Amazon is holding on to full exclusive rights.

Marta Balaga Italian production company Lux Vide, also behind “Medici” and “Leonardo,” will make its first move into unscripted TV with “Italian Food Tour.” TikTok’s “Condiment Claire” Dinhut and chef Max Mariola will co-host the 12-episode show, exploring culinary – and cultural – characteristics of various Italian regions. Introduced to international buyers during MIA Market, “Italian Food Tour” will start shooting in the spring. Antonio Azzalini has been tapped as showrunner. “At Lux Vide, we like to promote our country. Also because Italians are so bad at marketing,” CEO Luca Bernabei tells Variety at the show’s unveiling in Rome. The company was acquired by Fremantle in March.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItaly’s Lux Vide, the production company behind “Medici” and financial thriller “Devils,” is now scoring a global hit with its medical procedural “Doc,” the second season of which had its French launch at the Series Mania fest.“Doc,” which turns on a prominent physician who, following a head injury, suffers a permanent partial memory loss but still finds a new way to practice his profession, has been sold as a ready made to a slew of territories, including Australia, Canada, Venezuela, the Netherlands and Nigeria. The Italian version has already aired in France (TF1), Australia (SBS), Spain (AXN) and Portugal (AXN), while a local adaptation played in the Czech Republic.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFremantle has acquired a 70% stake in Italy’s Lux Vide, the prominent TV production company that has been steadily raising its standing in the international arena, most recently with the high-end TV series “Medici,” “Devils” and “Leonardo.”The long-gestating Lux Vide deal, which closed on Thursday, marks the latest acquisition by the expanding RTL-owned production and distribution giant. Fremantle, which has been on a buying spree, now owns or controls a panoply of independently operated production shingles across Europe, as well as in Israel, Australia and the U.S.Their stated goal is to invest and grow in the global scripted arena where, by their count, Fremantle delivered 81 scripted shows in 2021, including BBC One hit “The Responder,” HBO Max series “Lust,” from Sweden’s Miso Film, and Italian dystopian drama “Anna.” Previous Fremantle investments include acquiring the 12 former Nent Studios production labels in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark (now rebranded This is Nice Group); Australian-American television production company Eureka Productions; U.K.-based Naked Entertainment; French label Kwai; and Israel’s Abot Hameiri, among others.The Lux purchase also marks Fremantle’s third acquisition of a production company in Italy, where the company already owns Wildside and The Apartment, the outfit behind Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated “The Hand of God.” Fremantle also recently inked a pact with Italy’s Cinecittà involving the long-term rental of six sound stages at the iconic Rome studios.Founded in 1992 by Ettore Bernabei, who was a long-time former chief of Italian pubcaster RAI, Lux Vide has since been headed by his progeny, Matilde and Luca Bernabei.

Fremantle has acquired 70% of Lux Vide, the 30-year-old Italian producer of Medici, Leonardo and Coco Chanel.

Will Thorne Staff WriterFor a brief moment in mid-June, the producers of “Leonardo,” the upcoming big-budget series with Aidan Turner (“Poldark”) as the famed inventor, considered shooting the U.K.