Maricel Alvarez joins cast of Woody Allen’s Bop Decameron

Argentinian actress Maricel Alvarez will join the ensemble cast of Woody Allen’s next project Bop Decameron (working title), following her successful performance in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Oscar nominated film Biutiful.

Allen’s film, which he is writing and directing, is due to start shooting in Rome from July and is loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, a collection of 100 bawdy novellas written in the 14^th century. The film is expected to feature four vignettes, two stories involving Italian characters in Italian and two in English involving American characters in Rome.

“[Alvarez] will travel to Rome in August to put herself at the orders of [Wood] Allen,” Marta Gomez at talent agency Kuranda who represent Alvarez confirmed to ScreenDaily.

Alvarez joins an impressive international cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin and Allen himself, with Italian comedic actor Roberto Benigni also reportedly likely to take a role in the film.

Bop Decameron is being produced by Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum and Helen Robin with financial backing from Italian outfit Medusa.

Alvarez spent fifteen years as a theatre actress before shooting to fame on the big screen in Inarritu’s multi award-winning drama Biutiful, in which she played the bipolar, alcoholic and promiscuous wife of Javier Bardem’s central character. For her performance she picked up several awards, including prizes at the Capri Hollywood film festival.