New Colonial Era Drama ‘Prince Aden’ by Italy’s De Serio Brothers Selected for Locarno’s Alliance 4 Development Platform

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.

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 Unlike in the U.K., Spain and Sweden — where kings and queens are still formally heads of state — Italy’s royal family, the House of Savoy, no longer rules. The last heir to the Italian throne, Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy and his family were forced into exile in 1946, when the prince was 9. That year, the Italian people voted in a referendum about whether the monarchy should continue. They chose to create a republic and punished the royals for failing to save their country from Mussolini’s fascist regime. The Savoys were allowed to return in 2003 after 57 years of exile. In 1978, Vittorio Emanuele – the king who never was – got into trouble while he and his wife and kids were living on the island of Cavallo, on the south coast of Corsica, France. As reconstructed from eyewitness interviews in a new Netflix documentary, on a hot August night he became enraged when some loud “shitty Italians” “borrowed” the dinghy off his yacht and tied it to another nearby boat. Fuming, he took a rifle, went to one of their boats and, after shots from his rifle rang out – that were just meant to scare – someone got hurt. Dirk Hamer, a 19-year-old sleeping on another boat nearby, died of gunshot injuries in early December. Though it was never legally proven that Vittorio Emanuele killed Hamer, this incident had a big impact on the prince’s life.

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.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna film archives have unearthed a small treasure trove of shorts documenting the early career of late icon Gina Lollobrigida, who was hailed as a major European sex symbol of the post-World War II era. The prominent archives, known globally as a prime film preservation entity, have found and restored three vintage clips dated between 1947 and 1948 in which Lollobrigida – who died at 95 in January – sings Italian folk songs billed under the name Diana Lori. Described by the archives as precursors to MTV-style music videos, the shorts were directed by Pietro Francisci, later known for hit swords-and-sandals titles such as 1958’s “Hercules” starring Steve Reeves as its titular hero. In the shorts Lollobrigida appears to sing (she may have been dubbed) Italian folk songs “O sole mio!”; “Na sera ‘e maggio”; and “Stornellata Romana.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Two-time Oscar-winning editor Pietro Scalia will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Vision Award honoring technical achievements and advancements in film. Scalia, who was born in Sicily but grew up in Switzerland and studied film at UCLA, has won Oscars for “JFK” and “Black Hawk Down.” Over the past two decades he’s collaborated closely with top directors such as Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Gus Van Sant, Rob Marshall, Sam Raimi and Michael Mann. His recent work includes Mann’s upcoming “Ferrari.” Scalia will receive the Locarno award on Aug. 3 during a ceremony on the Swiss fest’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande, followed on Aug. 4 by an onstage conversation and screenings of two standout titles from his career: “Good Will Hunting” (1997) and “Black Hawk Down” (2001).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Welsh actor Alexander Vlahos, known for his roles in TV series such as “Merlin,” “Outlander” and “Versailles,” is set to play a British ornithologist who, during a field trip to Sicily, gets involved in more than mere birdwatching. Shooting is underway in Sicily on the indie drama “Hearts of Salt,” the first feature by London-based line producer Rosa Russo. The passion project is structured as a three-way co-production between Italy, the U.K. and Tunisia, with shooting also planned in the North African country. Tunisia will serve as a second location besides the Italian island. Though plot details are scarce, “Hearts of Salt” will see Vlahos — who will soon be seen opposite Lindsay Lohan in the Netflix rom-com “Irish Wish” — arrive in Sicily on a mission to study the effects of climate change on bird migrations. However, the ornithologist will soon have to abandon his role as a detached observer of flight patterns in the Sicilian skies after witnessing a series of dramatic events on the ground comprising cultural and generational clashes, a growing disconnect in family and human ties, and the broader ecological crisis which is the overall backdrop against which “Hearts of Salt” is set.

Christina Aguilera is putting her own spin on biker gear in New York City.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Roughly two years after his return to Naples for “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino is heading back to his hometown for a movie that plays on local mythology. The still untitled film is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” the Oscar-winning auteur has revealed to Variety. In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Filming ItalySardegna Festival that kicks off Italy’s summer moviegoing season will play a prominent role in the ongoing push to lure Italians back into movie theaters, just as the country’s box office is starting to gain traction.    A robust roster of talents from Hollywood and Italy and a solid lineup of premieres are booked for this event, which combines film and TV and unspools June 22-25 in the Forte Village resort near Cagliari, capital of Sardegna (Sardinia in English). The fest is set to take place just as the Italian government starts to invest €20 million ($22 million) to promote moviegoing through a campaign called Cinema Revolution, under which cinema tickets will be half-price for a limited time. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Milan-based events creator Marco Balich has choreographed and produced a record-breaking 14 Olympic ceremonies, including for the 2006, 2014, 2016 and 2020 Olympics respectively held in Turin, Sochi, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.  More recently, Balich and his team created the spectacular ceremony for the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup for which he liaised directly with Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.  His Balich Wonder Studio has now partnered with global content giant Banijay, which has taken a 51% stake in the outfit he created in 2013.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, the arthouse darling known for works including Venice Golden Lion winner “Vive L’Amour” and “The River,” which scored the Berlin Silver Bear, will be celebrated by the Locarno Film Festival with its Honorary Leopard achievement award.  The iconoclastic auteur, who is a key figure in Taiwan’s so-called Second New Wave, will receive the prize from the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during an Aug. 6 ceremony held on its 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue. The tribute to Tsai Ming-liang will also involve an onstage conversation with the director on the future of cinema and a screening of the helmer’s 2020 film “Days” (Rizi), as well as an art gallery exhibition of his experimental works.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Tom Cruise made an impassioned speech about cinemagoing from Rome’s Spanish Steps at the world premiere of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” “There is a community that we are all part of — different cultures and ways of life, we all join together to enjoy cinema,” said Cruise, dressed in a crisp blue suit and wearing aviator shades. “It’s something that I grew up with, that made me and inspired me to dream and want to travel the world. “My goal since I was little was to make movies and travel. And not just be a tourist, but work in that world and understand their culture. Through my movies, I’ve been able to have that because everyone here has allowed me to entertain them. It’s a privilege that I have never taken for granted. It’s my passion to entertain you, and I will always fight for big theaters and that kind of experience for everyone.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at Cannes, has scored a raft of sales following its launch. The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes official selection, “Goodbye Julia” is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the currently war-ravaged country.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Prisma,” the groundbreaking Amazon Italian original series centered around identical adolescent teen twins who challenge gender norms in different ways, has been renewed for a second season. The second installment of the show is being financed and distributed under a different business model than the first season with Germany’s Beta Film now coming on board as a co-financier and international distributor outside Italy. Shooting is underway in and around the city of Latina, just south of Rome, on “Prisma” season two with director Ludovico Bessegato back at the helm. Bessegato, who previously gained local prominence as showrunner of “Skam Italia” – the hit Italian adaptation of the Nordic young adult drama – also serves as writer of “Prisma” 2. He is now working with Francesca Scialanca following his collaboration with writer Alice Urciuolo on the first installment that launched last year from the Locarno Film Festival.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian actor-turned-director Andrea Di Stefano, whose sleek cop thriller “Last Night of Amore” just had its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, is in advanced stages of development on “Karski” a feature about Jan Karski, the World War II Polish resistance fighter who risked his life to blow the whistle on the Holocaust. Di Stefano’s high-profile project, which is titled “Karski,” is being developed by New York City-based production company Phiphen Pictures, the indie founded by Molly Conners most recently behind Netflix’s “Like Father” and “It’s Bruno!,” the director said. Italy’s expanding Indiana Production, which shepherded “Amore,” is also on board.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italians on Wednesday bid farewell to TV tycoon and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi with a national day of mourning and a state funeral in Milan’s Duomo cathedral attended by top local political and business leaders and some foreign dignitaries, aired live across all the country’s main media outlets. After the hearse with Berlusconi’s flower-draped casket drove slowly through Milan streets amid cheers, tens of thousands of people outside the Duomo erupted in applause as pallbearers solemnly carried the coffin through the crowd. Inside the cathedral his five children, Marina, Pier Silvio, Barbara, Eleonora and Luigi, and his 34-year-old girlfriend Marta Fascina, shed tears as the casket was placed in front of the altar and the Archbishop of Milan, Monsignor Mario Delpini, began the service.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent There are many reasons why Silvio Berlusconi’s death, at 86 due to complications from chronic leukemia, represents the end of an era. Berlusconi single-handedly created the concept of private national network television in Italy. He was part of that rare breed of Logan Roy-esque media moguls to emerge in Europe in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Rupert Murdoch and Germany’s Leo Kirch. At a time when Italy’s airwaves were monopolized by state broadcaster RAI’s stodgy channels, his Mediaset TV platform imported Hollywood series such as “Dallas” and “Baywatch” and movies like “Rambo” and “Conan the Barbarian.” The locally produced topless quiz show “Colpo Grosso” also defined Berlusconi’s TV pioneer days. There was no turning back.