‘Gomorrah’ Author Roberto Saviano to Make Directorial Debut With Animation Feature ‘I’m Still Alive’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Los Angeles-based Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s delicate drama “Monica” is finally set to open in U.S. theaters via IFC following its world premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival. The film starring transgender actor Trace Lysette (“Transparent”) as a woman who returns home to the Midwest to care for her dying mother, played by Patricia Clarkson, marked the first time an openly-transgender actress headlined a Venice competition title. In “Monica” Lysette plays a woman who from Los Angeles goes back to her suburban midwest home for the first time since she was a teenager to care for her mom who had rejected her when she transitioned.

Killer Mike‘s new solo album will feature collaborations with André 3000, Lil Wayne, Dave Chappelle and more.According to a new Instagram post from Radio Milwaukee station HYFIN, the new project is called ‘Michael’ and will feature a number of collaborations.Following a listening party at SXSW in Austin, Texas last week, DJ Kenny Perez shared: “Without a doubt, RUN and embrace it when it drops. The project is journey through his life and he doesn’t hold back.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli, whose trilogy of female biopics, “Nico, 1988,” “Miss Marx,” and “Chiara” all launched from the Venice Film Festival, is set to direct the TV series “Fireworks” depicting the struggle of Italy’s partisans against Nazis and Fascists through the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl named Marta. Shooting is set to start on May 8 in the Piedmontese Alps on “Fireworks,” which is being produced by Domenico Procacci’s Fandango and Rome shingle Matrioska. Fandango, who is the show’s lead producer, is in advanced talks with Italian state broadcaster RAI to come on board. Fandango is also talking up the six-episode limited series at the Series Mania confab in Lille, France, where they are seeking prospective international partners.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian Canadian actor Giacomo Gianniotti, who played Dr. Andrew DeLuca on “Grey’s Anatomy,” is set to star in “Inganno,” Netflix’s Italian adaptation of the U.K. TV series “Gold Digger” that starts shooting this week on the Amalfi coast. The taboo-breaking show – which was dubbed a “toyboy thriller” by the British press – depicts the passionate and turbulent relationship between an older woman and a man who is half her age. In this case the affair disrupts and subverts Italian social and family norms. A “Gold Digger” adaptation for Indian audiences is also reportedly in the works. “Inganno,” which means “deceit” in Italian, is being directed by Neapolitan auteur Pappi Corsicato whose “The Seed of Discord” competed at the Venice Film Festival in 2008. Corsicato’s visual style is often compared to Pedro Almodovar, of whom he has been an assistant.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Influential Italian auteur Francesco “Citto” Maselli who worked with Lucia Bosé, Claudia Cardinale, Shelley Winters and Valeria Golino on films that combined his political passion with his bent for female-centered dramas, has died in Rome. Maselli, who was known for making left-wing militant cinema, was 92. The director’s death was announced to Italian news agency ANSA by Maurizio Acerbo, leader of Italy’s small Communist Refoundation Party, the group of die-hard Italian leftists that Maselli championed, and confirmed by the director’s wife. The exact cause of Maselli’s death was not revealed.

the critically acclaimed 2019 film Parasite, is set to make his directorial debut.Han has been confirmed as the director of South Korean streaming platform TVING’s upcoming K-drama series Running Mate (literal title), which is expected to premiere sometime in 2024, as reported by Sports Chosun.Aside from his work on Parasite, Han was also previously an assistant director for Netflix’s Ojka, the second season of Sense8, as well as the 2016 South Korean disaster film Pandora.The forthcoming series will follow high school student Se-hoon, who decides to run for student council elections in order to reinvent himself, but ends up becoming the focus of the election cycle.Meanwhile, Running Mate will reportedly star Seasons of Blossom‘s Yoon Hyun-soo in the lead role of Se-hoon. The series will also feature Tracer actor Lee Jung-sic, Mr.

Eva Longoria is getting ready to release her feature directorial debut “Flamin’ Hot”, which is set to have an unprecedented release debuting on both Hulu and Disney+ on June 9, 2023.

Demi Lovato partnered with Hulu to make their directorial debut.

Ellise Shafer Demi Lovato is stepping into the director’s chair. The singer, songwriter and actor will make their directorial debut with “Child Star” (working title), a feature-length documentary that aims to “deconstruct the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight through the lens of some of the world’s most famous former child stars, including Lovato,” according to a press release. Lovato will co-direct alongside Nicola Marsh (“Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story,” “Song Exploder). Producers include Michael D. Ratner’s OBB Pictures, Lovato’s production banner DLG and Scooter Braun’s SB Projects. The three companies have worked together before on the pop star’s docuseries “Dancing With the Devil,” which premiere at SXSW in 2021 and received critical acclaim. “Dancing With the Devil” dove deeper into Lovato’s personal life and struggles with addiction, particularly their near-fatal overdose in 2018.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi’s documentary about love, memory and Alzheimer’s disease “The Eternal Memory” has scored a slew of international sales after making a splash at Sundance and Berlin. Dogwoof, the British sales company specialized in high-profile docs, has announced multiple deals on “Eternal Memory,” which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary in January and was a recent standout at the Berlinale where it had its European bow. The hot doc is screening later this week at the CPH:DOX documentary film festival in Copenhagen. Dogwoof partnered with MTV Documentary Films to represent “The Eternal Memory” for international sales soon after its Sundance premiere. They have now scored sales on the doc to: Edge Entertainment (Nordics); Madman (Australia and New Zealand); Sherry Media (Canada); I Wonder Pictures (Italy); BTeam Pictures (Spain); Periscoop (Benelux); Atnine Film (South Korea); Synca (Japan); LEV (Israel), and Restart (Former Yugoslavia).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix has acquired global rights to Italian rom-com “Era Ora” (“Still Time”), marking a rare instance in which an Italian comedy is set to gain worldwide visibility. “Still Time” is directed by Alessandro Aronadio, a Los Angeles Film School graduate whose first work “One Life, Maybe Two” launched from Berlin’s Panorama section. The concept comedy stars Edoardo Leo (“Perfect Strangers”) as a workaholic named Dante who is perpetually late to everything important and Barbara Ronchi, soon to be seen in Marco Bellocchio’s “La Conversione,” as his girlfriend Alice with whom Dante winds up leaping ahead a year every few hours, just as he wants to slow down.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Aardman Animations’ founder Peter Lord and “Waltz With Bashir” director Ari Folman are set to receive Pulcinella Career Awards at Italy’s Cartoons On The Bay TV animation festival which is broadening its scope. The event launched in 1996 by Italian state broadcaster RAI has now expanded beyond TV toons to comprise video game productions, the comic book world, transmedia storytelling and metaverse animation content. Reflecting its more high-tech horizons, the fest’s 27th edition – which will run May 31-June 4 in the Southern seaside city of Pescara – will also be celebrating “Cuphead,” the hit Canadian video game that’s become a Netflix series, and bestowing its creator Maja Moldenhauer with its new Transmedia Award.

There can be no doubt why Searchlight Pictures was excited to bring Flamin’ Hot, the true life story of the man known as the ‘godfather of hispanic marketing’, to the screen. Premiering today at SXSW, the life story of Richard Montanez — a high school dropout from a struggling Latino family who worked as a janitor in a Southern California Frito-Lay factory for 10 years — is, at its heart, really a Rocky-style inspirational tale perfect for the Hollywood treatment. He eventually realized the American dream and rose to one the highest ranks of the company,

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s Film AlUla, the entity looking to attract international productions to a sprawling area of desert and giant boulders that boasts an ancient city, is forging fashion world ties. The film commission for the swathe of northwest Saudi Arabia roughly the size of Belgium that also comprises a lush oasis and vast sandstone canyons, is launching an initiative called AlUla Creates involving use of an eco-friendly studio and the possibility of tapping into development funds for projects by female directors at the intersection of film and fashion. AlUla Creates has partnered with the British Fashion Council and with Saudi actress Mia Al Zahrani (“The Perfect Candidate”); British filmmaker and creative director Alec Maxwell – founder of digital platform Kloss Films whose clients include Bulgari, Stella McCartney, and Carolina Herrera –; and fashion models Helena Christensen and Eva Herzigova as “ambassadors” to promote the platform, according to a statement.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer Andrea Iervolino is planning to bring to the big screen “Maserati: a Racing Life,” an English-language biopic about the family behind the high-performance automobiles that, along with Ferrari and Lamborghini, Italy is known for.   Iervolino’s AMBI Group – in which he is partnered with Monika Bacardi – previously produced the Bobby Moresco-directed biopic “Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend” and is also among producers of Micheal Mann’s upcoming “Ferrari” with Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley. He told Variety he sees “Maserati” as a natural segue to those films about Italy’s iconic automakers.

Sony Pictures Classics has taken global rights to Randall Park’s feature directorial Shortcomings. The pic starring Justin H. Min (After Yang), Sherry Cola (Joy Ride, Good Trouble), and Ally Maki (Big Door Prize), Tavi Gevinson (Gossip Girl), Debby Ryan (Insatiable), Sonoya Mizuno (House of the Dragon), Timothy Simons (Veep), and Jacob Batalon (Reginald The Vampire) had its world premiere at Sundance back in January in the U.S. Dramatic Competition sector.

Demi Lovato has shared ‘Still Alive’, the song she co-wrote with Mike Shinoda for the Scream 6 soundtrack – check out the video below.‘Still Alive’ is the first track Lovato has released since 2022’s pop-punk album ‘Holy Fvck’. The track was co-written and produced by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, who also makes a cameo in the official video.The accompanying music video sees Lovato and her friends attend what they believe is a screening of Scream 6 but a masked killer soon turns up and starts causing trouble.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Warning: This story contains a graphic image. David Cronenberg has made a short film featuring female wax corpses made during the 18th century in Italy. The wax figures were intended for medical studies, in order to train surgeons prior to operating on real bodies. The Canadian director, known as the father of body horror thanks to films such as “The Fly,” “eXistenZ,” and his latest pic “A History of Violence,” has been recruited by Italian fashion house Prada to shoot the short film. It features anatomical wax works from the La Specola museum in Florence, one of the oldest scientific museums in Europe. The museum is currently being renovated and is closed to the public.

Michael B. Jordan not only stars in Creed III but also makes his directorial debut. During the Hollywood premiere at the Chinese Theatre, Jordan introduced the entire cast of the film and gave an emotional speech.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In the first few months of 2020, huge swathes of Northern Italy were hit by the COVID-19 virus. Soon the death toll in the city of Bergamo reached such heights that an army convoy had to transport coffins out because its cemeteries and crematoriums were full. In his powerful doc “The Walls of Bergamo,” which world premieres on Friday in Berlin’s Encounters section, prominent Italian documentary director Stefano Savona – whose “Samouni Road” won the Golden Eye prize in 2018 at Cannes – and a team of student filmmakers take the pulse of the city when it is on the brink of collapse and, subsequently, as Bergamo begins its healing and recovery process.