‘The King Who Never Was’ Director on Reconstructing the Murder Investigation Involving Italy’s Last Heir — and Her Connection to the Case

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French director Élise Girard’s “Sidonie in Japan” starring Isabelle Huppert as a French writer mourning her husband’s death while on a book tour of Japan, is among titles set to launch from the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Giornate Degli Autori. The section, also known as Venice Days, has unveiled its lineup comprising ten titles world premiering in competition – six of which first works – and films in other sections all displaying a wide range of genres and visual styles, but tied together by “A common discourse,” said the section’s artistic director Gaia Furrer.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Apple TV+ documentary series “Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn” reconstructs the rise and fall of former Nissan and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, whose incarceration in Japan on financial misconduct charges was followed by an extraordinary escape. Inspired by the book “Boundless” by The Wall Street Journal reporters Nick Kostov and Sean McLain, the series is directed by Emmy-winning British filmmaker James Jones (“Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes”).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival is announcing its lineup on Tuesday from the Italian city, where artistic director Alberto Barbera and La Biennale president Roberto Cicutto are holding a press conference. The Lido’s only previously announced titles in the main selection are the opener, Italian director Edoardo De Angelis’ “Comandante” — a lavish anti-war epic featuring local star Pierfrancesco Favino as a heroic Sicilian World War II naval officer — and the closer, Netflix’s survival thriller “Society of the Snow” by Spanish filmmaker J.A. Bayona. “Comandante” replaced Luca Guadagnino’s sexy sports comedy “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, which had previously been set as the fest’s buzzy opener but was pulled due to promotional complications prompted by the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Spanish director J.A. Bayona’s “Society of the Snow,” a reconstruction of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes that forced survivors to take extreme measures, including cannibalism, has been set as the Venice Film Festival’s closing film. The deeply immersive Spanish-language saga is a Netflix original film shot in Andalusia’s Sierra Nevada, mainland Spain’s highest mountain range, using a 300-person crew. “Society of the Snow” will world premiere on the Lido out-of-competition on Sept. 9th. Its official screening will be held in the Palazzo del Cinema after the awards ceremony. In 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which had been chartered to bring Montevideo’s Old Christians Rugby Club team to Chile, crashed at an altitude of 11,712 feet in the Andes.  Of its 45 passengers – which consisted mostly of the rugby team, friends and family – 29 survived. Without food, the survivors, who belonged to Uruguay’s elite, were forced to eat the flesh of the deceased to stay alive. 19 survived an avalanche. 72 days after the crash, 16 finally made it out alive. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, took a guarded tone in talking about the SAG-AFTRA strike during an industry panel in Italy on Friday. But it was clear that he hopes it will be over soon. “We are very dismayed about having these strikes” said Vinciquerra, referring to the combined WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that mark the second time in Hollywood history that actors have joined writers on the picket lines. “We want to make a deal,” the Sony chief went on, adding: “Even though there have been a lot of headlines saying the opposite.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In March, several months before SAG-AFTRA actors went on the warpath in Hollywood, Italy’s dubbing industry workers staged a protracted strike demanding higher wages, less frenzied work conditions and protection against artificial intelligence. The Italian dubbing industry workers – many of whom are voice actors – returned to work after three weeks as local unions entered a phase of negotiations that seemed promising enough, even though their issues are not yet resolved. Cut to the present day. Italian unions representing the country’s film and TV industry workers are at “a very critical, almost historic juncture” in a broader labor dispute with the country’s motion picture association ANICA and other industry trade orgs, according to Sabina Di Marco, leader of SLC CGIL, the biggest union at the bargaining table.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Placebo singer-guitarist Brian Molko is ruffling political feathers in Italy after lashing out against the country’s right-wing Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni, calling her a “fascist” and a “racist” during a packed concert near Turin. Prosecutors in Turin have now opened an investigation against the U.S.-born frontman of the British alt-rock band following his performance last week in front of 10,000 fans at the Sonic Park festival in Stupinigi outside Turin, according to multiple press reports. Molko’s insults at Italy’s prime minister from the stage also included calling Meloni a “piece of shit.” Meloni leads the Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots and heads Italy’s most right-wing coalition government since World War II. She scored victory last September while running on anti-immigration policies, as well as plans to limit LGBTQ rights. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Venice Film Festival will pay tribute to late Italian icon Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January, with a pre-opening event featuring a double bill of freshly restored works in which she stars. The Lido’s annual pre-opening event on Aug. 29 will feature a 27-minute short by Orson Welles titled “Portrait of Gina.” In 1968, Welles interviewed Lollobrigida in her villa on the Appian Way as the pilot for an ABC TV series — a U.S. version of “Around the World With Orson Welles”– that ABC rejected. Welles’ portrait of the diva remained in the vaults until 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival one year after Orson Welles’ death. This piece has been defined by Welles as a “personal essay” on Lollobrigida. Interestingly, when Lollobrigida saw “Portrait of Gina” in Venice in 1986, she reportedly tried to have it banned. The short’s restoration was done by the Munich Film Museum and Italy’s Cinecittà.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Federico Fellini’s post-war immigration story “Napoli-New York,” which was penned for the big screen by the famed director but never produced, is set to become a graphic novel written by French comic book writer Jean-David Morvan. Meanwhile, as previously announced, cameras are rolling in Naples on the movie version by Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores. Fellini co-wrote the tale with his frequent collaborator Tullio Pinelli, a writer on the Italian maestro’s “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,” as well as other titles. Turin-based media company Arancia Studio has now attached the prolific Morvan – who has written more than 250 books that have sold millions of copies – for the graphic novel adaptation.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Jane Campion, Laura Poitras, Mia Hansen-Løve and Martin McDonagh are among high-caliber members of the Venice Film Festival’s main jury. The prominent directors, most of whom are Venice regulars – Poitras last year scored the Golden Lion with documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” – will be joined on the Venice jury panel by Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“Wajib”); Chinese star Shu Qi (“The Assassin”); Italian director Gabriele Mainetti, who was at Venice last year with “Freaks Out”; and Argentinian auteur Santiago Mitre whose “Argentina, 1985” also launched from the Lido last year. They will join Damien Chazelle who – as previously announced – will serve as president of the Venice competition jury. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s iconic monuments are getting lots of mileage in Hollywood movies this summer. Since May, the Eternal City has hosted the world premieres of “Fast X” and “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” two blockbusters that burned rubber and wreaked havoc on its cobblestoned streets. Universal held its “Fast X” red carpet in the Roman Forum’s Temple of Venus, with the Colosseum as a backdrop, in early May. Weeks later, Paramount descended for the June premiere of “M:I 7,” with Tom Cruise prancing down the same Spanish Steps that serve as the setting for spectacular car chases in both movies.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One is looking at $6M-$7M in previews so far, which is bound to be higher than the Thursday previews of the last Mission Impossible – Fallout back in 2018 which did $6M. This is according to sources. The figures we’re seeing now could go higher or lower.

Can Tom Cruise save summer?

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has released first-look images of limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that marks the streamer’s most ambitious Italian original to date. Production on the lavish historical tapestry with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” – and potential to make a global mark – is currently underway in the Sicilian cities of Palermo, Syracuse and Catania. The show is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The movie, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Veteran Swedish star Stellan Skarsgård, who plays villain Baron Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” – part two of which will be released in November – will be honoured by the Locarno Film Festival with its Leopard Club Award. Skarsgård, who started his Hollywood career working with top directors such as StevenSpielberg in “Amistad” (1997) and Gus Van Sant in “Good Will Hunting,” the same year, and segued to memorable roles in Gore Verbinsky’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and in “Mamma Mia!,” among other films. He is being feted by the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema with its Leopard Club Award dedicated to a film industry artist who has made a “mark on the collective imagination.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Those who were hoping for “Succession”-style infighting following Silvio Berlusconi’s death may be disappointed. The will of Italy’s media-mogul and former prime minister – who died on June 12 at age 86 – was partly made public on Thursday. What emerged is that his eldest children, Marina and Pier Silvio, will together continue to control his business empire estimated to be worth around $6.8 billion, according to Forbes. But, according to a statement issued by his five chilren, “No shareholder will exercise overall individual indirect control of Fininvest SpA previously exercised by their father.” Fininvest is the Berlusconi family holding company.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sky Italia celebrated its 20-year anniversary on Tuesday by announcing a rich slate of upcoming originals, including a second season of the Italian adaptation of “Call My Agent,” which will see “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore joining the cast. The Sky Italia originals slate comprises previously announced high-end drama “M. Son of the Century” by British director Joe Wright, alongside less lavish shows in various stages – most of which have international potential. It underscores how the Italian unit of the Comcast-owned pay-TV service continues to be a major Italian industry driver. While Sky’s German unit, which is believed to be up for sale, has put production on pause, Sky Italia is cranking out Italian originals through the platform’s Sky Studios unit at a steady pace, showing no signs of a slowdown.

The King and Queen have unveiled a plaque at Holyrood Palace marking the Jubilee Gates which were installed last year as a gift to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

King Charles is visiting Scotland this week as celebrations take place in order to honour the new British sovereign.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is off to a disappointing start with a $130M global opening. Of that, $70M is from 52 international box office markets as the the fifth installment in the beloved 42-year-old franchise came in below projections.