‘Gomorrah’ Star Marco D’Amore to Direct ‘Caracas’ Starring Toni Servillo, Vision Launches Sales at EFM (EXCLUSIVE)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Prior to becoming an actor, Giancarlo Giannini, who on March 6 will be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, studied electronic engineering, a skill he’s been known to put to good use even on movie sets. “I was meant to start working on the first artificial satellites, or on the first computers at IBM,” the Italian film and theater thesp recalls. But then Giannini enrolled in acting school and soon was given major roles, first by Franco Zeffirelli and then by Lina Wertmüller, with whom he went on to make nine movies that brought them both international fame. “I owe it to Lina that I will be getting the star. The only other Italian actor who has one is Rudolph Valentino,” he notes.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Martin Scorsese is executive producing Argentine filmmaker Celina Murga’s latest drama, “The Freshly Cut Grass,” which has begun production.  Produced by “Argentina, 1985” producers Infinity Hill, the film stars Oscar nominee Marina de Tavira (“Roma”) who plays opposite Argentina’s Joaquin Furriel (“The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime”) in what is described as “an exploration of love, desire, relationships and how society applies double standards for men and women.” “I came to know Celina [Murga] through Rolex’s arts mentorship program, in which I’d agreed to participate for the 2008-2009 year,” said Scorsese. “I chose Celina among the candidates that were sent my way because I was greatly impressed by her two features ‘Ana and the Others’ and ‘A Week Alone,’” he added.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian actor-turned-director Andrea Di Stefano, whose gritty police drama “The Last Night of Amore” is launching from the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Special Gala section, reps an Italian anomaly. “Amore,” which refers to a police lieutenant named Franco Amore, oddly marks Di Stefano debut directing an Italian-language film after helming well-received U.S. indie thrillers “Escobar: Paradise Lost,” with Benicio del Toro, and “The Informer.”  Sumptuosly shot in 35mm film and set in present-day Milan, “Last Night of Amore” harks back to Italian genre films of the 70s and 80s but has a fresh contemporary feel. The plot sees the good lieutenant, played by Italian A-lister Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor,” “Nostalgia”) being called on the night before retirement to investigate a crime scene where his best friend and long-time partner Dino has been killed during a diamond heist. Complications ensue, things get very frantic, and we learn how his love for his wife Viviana, played by Linda Caridi (“The Ties”) will help Amore survive the longest and most challenging night of his existence.

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.

Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Coleman on Law & Order: SVU, the longest-running character in TV history at 23 years and counting, sat for a wide-ranging chat this morning on Today. (Watch the full interview below.)

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The story of Italy’s most-wanted Mafia boss, Matteo Messina Denaro, whose recent arrest by police in Palermo after 30 years on the run made global headlines, is set to become a big-budget film. Rome-based producer Marco Belardi (“Perfect Strangers”) has acquired rights to ace anti-Mafia journalist Lirio Abbate’s book about the Cosa Nostra boss. The book is titled “U Siccu,” which is Sicilian dialect that translates as “The Skinny One.” Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January by dozens of police officers outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity.

Naman Ramachandran Classic cult film streamer Cultpix has struck a 31-film deal from three immensely popular franchises with Japan’s Kadokawa Daiei Studio at Berlin’s ongoing European Film Market (EFM). The deal includes 20 Zatoichi films, eight Gamera films and three Daimajin films. The deal is for the Nordic countries initially, but the aim is for wider distribution eventually. In addition, timed with Nikkatsu’s 50th anniversary of their “Roman Poruno” films, Cultpix rediscovered six previously virtually unknown Nikkatsu productions, shot in Sweden between 1971-1973, with everything Japanese apart from the actors and the locations. The screenwriter, director and behind-the-camera talent were all flown in from Japan. The films were to emulate the popular “Swedish sin” films of the time, as there was a market need for them in Japan.

Richard Belzer died Sunday, February 19, at his home in France. The actor was 78.

Naman Ramachandran The U.K.’s MetFilm Sales has closed a raft of deals on Becky Hunter’s debut feature documentary “Fashioned Reimagined” at Berlin’s ongoing European Film Market (EFM). The film has sold to Sky (U.K, Germany, Italy) NonStop Entertainment (Scandinavia, Baltics), Avrotros (Netherlands), Flag Co. (Japan), LevelFilm (Canada), Spain (Movistar) and Israel (DBS). “Fashion Reimagined” follows fashion designer Amy Powney of cult label Mother of Pearl, who embarks on a three-year journey to create a sustainable clothing collection from field to finished garment, and transform her entire business. Raised off-the-grid in rural England by activist parents, Powney has always felt uneasy about the devastating environmental impact of her industry. When she wins the Vogue award for the Best Young Designer of the Year, Powney decides to use the prize money to create a sustainable collection and transform her entire business.

Liza Foreman Hot on the tail of a recent slew of pickups and sales, Paris-based sales-producer-distributor Alief has snapped up international rights to the West African folktale “Mami Wata.”   North America rights to the film are represented by Marissa Frobes at CAA Media Finance. Alief is presenting the film to buyers and festival programmers at this week’s European Film Market in Berlin. The first film from a Nigerian-based director to play (and win an award) at Sundance, this visually striking feature took home the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography for Brazilian DP Lílis Soares.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The life of Turkey’s most famous photographer, Ara Guler, known globally for his portraits of scores of 20th century icons ranging from Pablo Picasso to Winston Churchill, is set to become a biopic directed by writer-director duo Aren Perdeci and Ela Almayanac (“Lost Birds”). Guler worked for many years for the photo agency Magnum, after its co-founder, celebrated photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, personally signed him up. Besides documenting top 20th century personalities, Guler, who died in 2018, gained fame for his images of a bygone Istanbul, which earned him the moniker “Istanbul’s Eye.” He established a long collaboration with Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. Guler’s photographs were included in the 2003 Pamuk book “Istanbul: Memories and the City.” He also directed the 1975 doc “End of the Hero,” about a World War I battle cruiser.

Ice-T received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, Feb. 17, and among those on hand to pay tribute was his long-time “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” co-star Mariska Hargitay.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Kino Produzioni, the indie shingle that co-produced 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” is ramping up production with new films by emerging Italian filmmakers Carlo Sironi, Laura Luchetti and Irene Dionisio, as well as also Dutch director Michiel Van Erp and Argentine filmmakers María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat.  “We reached a turning point last year that started out well with the ‘Alcarràs’ victory,” said Kino chief Giovanni Pompili, speaking at the EFM. He noted that in 2022, the Rome-based outfit shot four films, “which for us was pretty challenging, but worked out well.” Meanwhile, the Kino team has grown. Producer Lara Costa-Calzado, who has been working for a decade between the U.S. and Europe on films such as Eliza Hittman’s Silver Bear winner “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken” and Halina Rejin’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” has joined Kino as head of production.

If you cast your mind back to Married at First Sight UK’s 2021 series, you’ll probably recall some legendary brides ranging from Marilyse Corrigan to Nikita Jasmine. Fans of the E4 show will likely also remember Morag Crichton for her ill-fated marriage to Luke Dawson and, perhaps, for her beauty look. When the show was airing, Morag, 31, became the of Twitter commentary after watchers debated what treatment she’d had done to her brows to give them a shiny appearance.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent In “Joan Baez: I Am a Noise,” which is premiering on Feb. 17 at the Berlin Film Festival, the folk icon with a supple soprano voice and a long history of activism, takes a disarmingly candid look on her life as she faces the end of her 60-year musical career. The immersive doc is co-directed by Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O’Boyle. They interweave Baez’s 2018 Fare Thee Well final concert tour with her early years, her rise to fame, struggles with drugs that ensued, and a darker psychological thread involving a form of child abuse on the part of Baez’s father. A surprising level of intimacy is reached thanks to a wealth of material obtained from Baez’s meticulously preserved personal archives comprising home movies, diaries, artwork, therapy tapes, and audio recordings of voice letters to her family. Some, while Baez was on tour in England in 1965 with Bob Dylan whom, she confesses in the doc, “broke my heart.”

Manchester United attacker Marcus Rashford is reportedly a target for Premier League rivals Arsenal, with the Gunners said to be big admirers of the England international.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve (“The Worse Person in the World”) will soon be appearing on screen as lovers caught in an unusual bind in Italian director Piero Messina’s sci-fi film “Another End.” French sales company Newen Connect is launching sales on the pic at the European Film Market.  “Another End” is set in a near-future when a new technology exists that can put the consciousness of a dead person back into a living body, in an attempt to ease the grief of separation, providing a little extra time to say goodbye.  The English-language sci-fier by Messina — whose first feature, “The Wait,” launched with a splash in the 2015 Venice competition — sees Bernal play Sal, a man whose wife dies, and Reinsve as Zoe, the woman who then becomes his partner after renting out her body, in which the memory and consciousness of Sal’s former wife have been temporarily implanted. First look image of Reinsve as Zoe above.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Daniele Luchetti, who most recently helmed the third season of RAI/HBO’s Elena Ferrante series “My Brilliant Friend,” is working on a new film titled “Confidenza” (“Trust”) toplining Elio Germano. Luchetti previously directed Germano in the drama “Our Life” in a role that in 2015 won the actor top honors in Cannes. Vision Distribution is launching sales on “Trust” at the European Film Market. In “Trust” Giordano (first look image, above) plays a teacher in his forties named Pietro Vella who works in a rundown Roman high school. He strongly believes he can help students strive for a better future and Teresa, and bright and rebellious student, is totally taken with him and his lessons. Then, a few years later, they meet up again and get romantically entangled. Teresa insists they must share their deepest secrets to bond for life. But as soon as Pietro really opens up, the relationship ends.

Mark Harmon has been working in Hollywood for fifty years, his first acting credit being an episode on Ozzie's Girls back in 1973, but after hundreds of appearances – from Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing, to Freaky Friday, and of course NCIS – the actor has prided himself in keeping a low profile.The actor and his wife, Pam Dawber, live in a home in Mandeville Canyon, Los Angeles, away from the hubbub of Central LA.Though the two have been married since 1987, it is very infrequent that they make any red carpet appearances together.WATCH: NCIS teases major twist for Mark Harmon's Gibbs in dramatic season 19 trailerMORE: Kelly Ripa wows in skin-tight green wetsuit in honor of Philadelphia Eagles for Super BowlStill, despite them prioritizing keeping their personal life private, they do of course share a love for acting, and Pam has been working in the industry for almost as long as her husband. She previously starred in sitcoms such as Mork and Mindy as well as My Sister Sam.What's more, their careers have definitely been influential, and despite their attempts to keep a low profile and not let Hollywood take over, even their kids couldn't resist from following in their parents' footsteps.MORE: Was Rihanna's son at Super Bowl 2023? Her family life revealedThe longtime couple have two sons, Sean, 34, and Ty Christian, 30, and  like their parents, they too work in the industry.

EXCLUSIVE: French wildlife director Guillaume Maidatchevsky has revealed fresh details about his upcoming live-action Arctic fox adventure Kina & Yuk, on which Newen Connect is launching sales at the EFM.