All articles by Melanie Rodier – Page 2
-
News
Manual Of Love sequel starts shooting in Barcelona
Manual OfLove: The Stories, a sequel to the hit Aurelio De Laurentiis-producedcomedy, has started shooting in Barcelona with Monica Bellucci and Carlo Verdone.Directedby Giovanni Veronesi, the film also stars Riccardo Scamarcio, Barbora Bobulova, Sergio Rubini, and comedians Antonio Albanese, Fabio Volo and Claudio Bisio.Likethe original film, also directed by Veronesi, ...
-
News
Crowe and Luna among members of Venice jury
The Venice Film Festival(August 30-Sep 9) has announced its full competition jury, with membersincluding Cameron Crowe and Bigas Luna.As previously announced, themain competition jury of the 63rd edition will be presided over by Catherine Deneuve.Bigas Luna, whose new comedy Yo Soi La Juanis set for release at the end of ...
-
News
Italian minister ousts Cinecitta's board
Italy's new culture ministerFrancesco Rutelli has dismissed state-owned Cinecitta Holding's entire board of directors.Cinecitta Holding owns distributor IstitutoLuce, which is also involved in production and exhibition, and promotional bodyFilm Italia. Cinecitta Holding is also a shareholderin the Italian capital's Cinecitta Studios.Inparticular, Cinecitta Holding is directly involved infilm restoration and worldwide ...
-
News
New Rome festival to honour Sean Connery
SeanConnery will receive the new Rome Film Festival (Oct 13-21)'s first Acting Award,which pays tribute to a major living actor.Connerywill be the subject of a retrospective of 14 films, from his James Bond movie From Russia WithLove (1963) to Finding Forrester (2000).'Iam greatly honoured to be the first actor to ...
-
News
Moviemax gets rights to Mr Magorium and King Of California
Italian distributor Moviemax has acquired rights totwo upcoming US films: Mr Magorium'sWonder Emporium and King OfCalifornia.Sold by Freeway Entertainment, Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium stars Natalie Portman as the awkward clerk of a fantastical toy store. But whenthe 243 year-old eccentric store owner (Dustin Hoffman) leaves it to her, shemust decide ...
-
News
Venice Orizzonti to open with McGrath's Infamous
The63rd Venice Film Festival has announced that new Truman Capote drama Infamous will open the Orizzonti competition section.Infamous stars Toby Jones asCapote alongside Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Peter Bogdanovich,Jeff Daniels and Gwyneth Paltrow. It is directed byactor-writer-director Douglas McGrath, whose credits as a director include Emma (1996) and Nicholas Nickleby ...
-
News
Cappon appointed new RAI chief
Italianstate broadcaster RAI has named Claudio Cappon as itsnew director general. He replaces former chief Alfredo Meocci.RAI's board members are nominated by the Italianparliament. Cappon, currently head of the Italian TVproducers association APT, was previously directorgeneral of RAI between 2001 and 2002.Inhis role, Cappon will be responsible for theday-to-day running ...
-
News
Catherine Deneuve to head Venice jury
Frenchactress Catherine Deneuve will head the maincompetition jury at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival (Aug 30-Sep 9).Deneuve first caught the attention of the internationalpublic in Luis Bunuel's Belle De Jour, which premiered in Venice in 1967 and won theGolden Lion. In 1998, Deneuve won Venice's CoppaVolpi best actress prize ...
-
News
Cucinotta plans Indian-Italian film Bollywood Cop
Il Postino star Maria Grazia Cucinotta is to co-produceand star in a new Indian-Italian film entitled Bollywood Cop.Writtenand directed by Aditya Bhattacharya (Senso Unico), the $2.5m(Euros 2m) project is an action movie-noir set in Mumbai, about a rogue cop whobecomes obsessed with the actress he is protecting.Rome's IstitutoLuce is backing ...
-
News
Bertolucci readies adaptation of Bel Canto
BernardoBertolucci is lining up a new drama inspired by thereal events surrounding the hostage crisis at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996.Bertolucci's first film since 2003's The Dreamers is an adaptation of Ann Patchett'snovel, Bel Canto. It is set in an unnamed SouthAmerican country where an elaborate birthday ...
-
News
Italian distributors close Cannes deals
Domenico Procacci'sFandango is ramping up its upcoming distribution slate with several newacquisitions, including two Cannes competition titles.Rome-basedFandango has snapped up Italian distribution rights to Cannes jury prize winner, Red Road. Sold by Trust Film Sales, Andrea Arnold'sdrama is the first of three films to be made through Lars von Trier's ...
-
News
Wedding Night success tops Rai Trade Cannes sales
RaiTrade, the Rome-based international sales outfit has sealed a host ofsales on its Cannes slate.PupiAvati's Second Wedding Night, a comedy-drama set inthe south of Italyimmediately after the Second World War, was acquired by distributors in Mexico (CinemasNueva Era), Russia (Ruscico), Slovakia (STV), and Poland (TV Polska). Thepicture also sold to ...
-
News
Chiesa books Japan sale for Rosso Come Il Fuoco
Adriana Chiesa Enterprises has sold Rosso Come IlFuoco to Japan's Sine Qua Non.Directed by Cristiano Bortone, the film is inspired bythe true story of Mirco Mencacci, a blind sound editor who was sent to aschool for blind children in the 1970s, where he discovered a passion forcinema.The picture was written ...
-
News
Italy pays tribute to Leo Pescarolo
Leo Pescarolo, the Italian producer behind Federico Fellini's Prova D'Orchestra and co-producer of Lars von Trier's Dogville, has died. He was 70.Born in Genova to silent-era movie star Vera Vergani, Pescarolo was known as a courageous producer who championed quality arthouse pictures and international co-productions.He was credited with "discovering" a ...
-
News
Lazio starts Italy's fourth regional film fund
The long drought that hashit Italy's traditional film financiers is spurring the country to find newways of bolstering its film industry.As such, the Lazio regionaround Rome will become the fourth region in Italy to establish a filmfund.The $12.8m (Euros 10m) fund,created along the lines of France's Ile de France fund, ...
-
News
Rai Trade lines up A Fortune-Teller Told Me
International sales agentRai Trade is lining up a major English-language adaptation of Tiziano Terzani'sbest-selling novel, A Fortune-Teller Told Me.The book recounts thejournalist's experience as a foreign correspondent in Asia, where he waswarned by a fortune teller not to risk flying for a whole year or he would diein a plane ...
-
News
Lucky Red finds partners for Mereu's Sound Of Wood
Italy's Lucky Red is teamingup with France's Haut et Court andBelgium's Artemis to co-produceSalvatore Mereu's new feature,Sound Of Wood (Sonteaula).The $3.85m film, produced byAndrea Occhipinti of Lucky Red, hasjust started shooting in Sardinia for20 weeks.It is adapted from a book byGiuseppe Fiore, about a 12-year-oldshepherd whose father is unjustlyaccused of ...
-
News
EU and US team up for new online film charter
Online film downloading isto get more user-friendly with the signing of a new charter. In Cannes,EU and US Internet service providers and telecom operators such as TimeWarner, Vivendi and Telecom Italia endorsed the European Film OnlineCharter, which aims to encourage the wider circulation of European filmsboth within and outside the ...
-
News
Italy's Istituto Luce plans co-production with Pereira
Italian state distributorand co-producer Istituto Luce has set its sights on Argentina as a newco-production partner, and is lining up a new picture by Argentine directorMiguel Pereira, who previously made La Deuda Interna.Entitled La Mula, the film will have a budget of up to $3.8m, and isabout a girl who ...
-
News
Match Factory takes global rights to Weingartner satire
The Match Factory has taken world wide sales rights toHans Weingartner (The Edukators)'s new picture with the working title FreeRainer.The film is a contemporary satirical drama with anunconventional love story, about a group of outcasts who undertake acultural revolution.The picture, which will shoot later this year,is produced by Weingartner's own ...