Paolo Sorrentino Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paolo Sorrentino, the Oscar-winning director of “The Great Beauty” and “The Hand of God,” is set to preside over the jury of the Marrakech International Film Festival. The popular fest will make a comeback this year after a pair of editions were canceled due to the pandemic. The upcoming fest will take place Nov. 11-19. Sorrentino’s jury will award the Étoile d’Or to one of 14 feature-length films set to compete at the festival, which aims at showcasing rising filmmakers from around the world. The helmer follows the footsteps of prestigious directors and talents such as Martin Scorsese and Tilda Swinton, who presided over previous years.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Fremantle Group CEO Jennifer Mullin and Fremantle Group COO and CEO Continental Europe Andrea Scrosati are set to deliver a keynote address at Mipcom. The session comes on the heels of Fremantle Group’s recent high-profile acquisitions, including Element Pictures (“Conversations With Friends”), Lux Vide (“Medici”), Dancing Ledge Productions (“The Salisbury Poisonings”) and Eureka (“Holey Moley”). alongside talent partnerships with globally-renowned creatives including Angelina Jolie, Neil Cross, Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Michael Winterbottom, Jimmy Fallon, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Simon Cowell, Penelope Cruz, Pablo and Juan De Dios Larrain and Cara Delevingne.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Italian film industry is in a paradoxical state: production is booming but box office is bust. Italy’s five features vying for a Venice Golden Lion – plus a myriad more scattered in other Lido sections – reflect cinema Italiano’s current creative vibrancy, if you look at the cream of the crop; however, the average quality is not that great. On the plus side, the country is making a quantum leap forward in terms of the global visibility of its movies just as the number of Italian directors considered bankable in Hollywood, such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Sollima (“Without Remorse”), to name but a few, is growing.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Italian film industry is in a paradoxical state: production is booming but box office is bust. Italy’s five features vying for a Venice Golden Lion – plus a myriad more scattered in other Lido sections – reflect cinema Italiano’s current creative vibrancy, if you look at the cream of the crop; however, the average quality is not that great. On the plus side, the country is making a quantum leap forward in terms of the global visibility of its movies just as the number of Italian directors considered bankable in Hollywood, such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino and Stefano Sollima (“Without Remorse”), to name but a few, is growing.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe mob in Italy, besides being an endemic plague, has always been grist for the film and TV mill, with gritty Naples-set show “Gomorrah,” the country’s top TV export, being one recent example.But a major change is underway in how Italian producers and talents are tackling organized crime tropes that were once exclusively imbued in patriarchal pathos. Mob stories coming out of Italy are primarily a woman’s thing these days.

Fire broke out at Italy’s historic Cinecittà Studios on Monday afternoon (August 1), destroying part of an old set depicting Renaissance Florence, which was in the process of being dismantled, and disrupted Netflix film Old Guard 2.  

Rome’s historic Cinecittà Studios on Monday afternoon (Aug. 1) and was extinguished by three teams of firefighters. The fire broke out in the area where a set depicting renaissance Florence was housed and which was being decommissioned, destroying parts of it.

Apple Original Films continues to expand on its diverse film slate as it has landed the rights to Causeway, a new film starring and produced by Academy Award-winner Jennifer Lawrence, and directed by Lila Neugebauer. A24 produced and developed the project. The film will make its global debut in-theaters and on Apple TV+ later this year.

reported, Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi produced through their banner Excellent Cadaver. Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, who were attached when the film was announced in 2019, are no longer listed as producers.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentTim Burton is set to receive the 14th Lumiere Award at the Lumiere Festival, a week-long celebration of heritage movies and film masters held in Lyon, France, in October. Headed by Cannes Film Festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux, the Lumiere Festival previously honored Jane Campion, the Dardenne Brothers, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Jane Fonda, Wong Kar-wai, Catherine Deneuve, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach, Gérard Depardieu and Milos Forman“From his first movies and early successes, Burton establishes his universe, skilfully blending his intensely personal expressivity with novelistic lyricism and pictorial references, traversing the entire history of art,” said the Lumière Festival in a statement.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentContent giant Fremantle is making a big push into feature films as it expands its horizons, says group COO Andrea Scrosati who is also the multi-pronged company’s continental Europe chief.At last year’s Venice fest Fremantle, known for talent shows “X-Factor” and “American Idol” and TV series such as “The Mosquito Coast,” was flying the flag with several pics including Paolo Sorrentino’s prizewinning and Oscar-nommed “The Hand of God.” More recently at Cannes, Fremantle-produced film “The Eight Mountains” scored the jury prize. All of which, Scrosati boasts, is pretty good for just the past nine months.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian playwright Stefano Massini’s “The Lehman Trilogy,” which just won five Tony Awards including the prize for best play, is set to become a high-end TV series to be produced by Italy’s Fandango and The Apartment, the outfits behind HBO’s Elena Ferrante adaptation “My Brilliant Friend.”The TV project, originated by Italian producer Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, to adapt into a series the epic drama written by Massini that charts the history of one of the financial institutions that helped spark the 2008 recession, has now been boarded by producer Lorenzo Mieli’s shingle The Apartment, the Fremantle-owned company behind Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated “The Hand of God” and his “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope” shows. Fandango and Mieli previously collaborated on “My Brilliant Friend” for HBO and Italy’s RAI.Having Fremantle’s The Apartment on board gives “The Lehman Trilogy” TV series adaptation considerably more heft, though a commissioning broadcaster or streamer remains to be found.Mieli in a statement called “Lehman Trilogy” – which besides best play won Tony Awards for Sam Mendes’ direction and for the lead performance of Simon Russell Beale, among other prizes – “a marvelous and contemporary text” on the “intrinsic failures of a certain form of capitalism.”The chief of the Fremantle-owned company also noted that it’s rare for an Italian play to be celebrated outside national borders.

Manori Ravindran International EditorThe Cannes Film Festival invited eight male directors for an hours-long symposium on the future of cinema on Tuesday — a session that raised uneasy questions for those working with streaming services, and paid no attention to the lack of female filmmakers on the panel.Moderated by Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux and Canal+ correspondent and festival associate Didier Allouch, guests included Guillermo del Toro, Claude Lelouch, Costa Gavras, Gaspard Noé, Paolo Sorrentino, Nadav Lapid, Mathieu Kassovitz and Robin Campillo. The directors were interviewed individually, with Del Toro present on stage throughout.The session — which ran for two and a half hours, with speakers remaining a mystery until the event was underway — is one of two forums about cinema organized by the festival.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentThe Cannes Film Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary Tuesday evening with a group of no less than 120 stars and filmmakers from all over the world, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Paolo Sorrentino, Isabelle Huppert, Diane Kruger, Guillermo del Toro, Jacques Audiard, Melanie Laurent, Gael Garcia Bernal and Nicolas Winding Refn who made the trip for the event.Some of them, notably del Toro, took part in a symposium earlier Tuesday to discuss the new challenges that cinema is facing today. The roster of talents on the ground at the gala ceremony also included the bevy of stars and filmmakers presenting films at this year’s festival, including Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg (“Crimes of the Future”), among many others.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Cannes Film Festival gathered dozens upon dozens of previous laureates and special guests at the Palais des Festival this evening. Inside the Lumière Theatre, the fest’s artistic chief and general delegate, Thierry Frémaux, and outgoing Cannes President, Pierre Lescure, did a roll call of star actors and directors who left their seats and made their way to the stage .

Two-time Oscar winner and former Un Certain Regard Jury President Guillermo del Toro kicked off a filmmaker symposium at Cannes today, discussing the future of cinema, particularly as it’s been rattled by the pandemic.

After breaking out internationally in 2012 with his Oscar-nominated drama The Broken Circle Breakdown, and making his Hollywood debut in 2018 with Beautiful Boy, Felix van Groeningen makes his Competition debut in Cannes with The Eight Mountains, perhaps the most understated film of his career so far.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFremantle and Webtoon Studios, which is the entertainment arm of user-generated fiction and comics entertainment outfits Wattpad and Webtoon, have announced a new partnership that will see them co-develop a slate of European film and TV projects.These will be adapted from successful Spanish, Italian, and English language stories with built-in global fandoms on Wattpad and Webtoon, they said in a statement.Under the deal Fremantle, the production and distribution powerhouse owned by Germany’s RTL Group, and Webtoon Studios will be co-producing the content for worldwide distribution.The non-exclusive partnership will give Fremantle access to Webtoon Studios IPs spanning a wide range of genres, and also to their data-backed insights into what fans love about them. The two companies said they will be working with the original Wattpad authors to develop local and regional hits with global appeal in Spanish, Italian, and English-speaking countries.Fremantle has a robust European drama slate comprising Luca Guadagnino’s coming of age drama series “We Are Who We Are” and Tobias Lindholm-directed “The Investigation” and Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated film “The Hand of God,” to name a few.

Fremantle has struck a deal with Wattpad Webtoon Studios to develop a slate of European projects adapted from Spanish, Italian and English-language stories with existing global fandoms.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSince Cinecittà Studios was founded in 1937, the sprawling facilities have driven the golden age of Cinema Italiano.The famed city of cinema has also, albeit intermittently, been a magnet for international productions and endured wild fluctuations in the country’s political climate, before recently reemerging as a new frontier for the country’s film and TV industry.Located in the heart of the Mediterranean basin, a short ride from the center of Rome and its airports, Italy’s top production hub has to date, hosted more than 3,000 films that have earned 53 Oscars.During the period following World War II, the studios forged close ties to Hollywood, which helped the Italian industry gain its international standing. The myriad Italian pics made at the studios range from Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960) and “8½” (1963) to Nanni Moretti’s “Sogni D’Oro” (1981), Sergio Leone’s epic “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), Giuseppe Tornatore’s “The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean” (1998) Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo” (2008) and, more recently, his TV series “The New Pope” in 2019.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentDisney, Amazon, Netflix and Showtime all have TV series of different types either recently shot or set to shoot in Sicily.As one of its first Italian originals, Disney+ has commissioned a still-untitled TV series about Sicily’s Florio family, who, during the 19th century, built an economic empire on the island and became known as the merchant princes of Europe.Casting is now underway for this high-end period epic, to be directed by Italy’s Paolo Genovese (“Perfect Strangers”) and produced by Rome-based Lotus Prods., a unit of Leone Film Group. The Sicilian skein, which is expected to start shooting in July, is based on local bestseller “The Lions of Sicily,” by Stefania Auci, that has been translated in several languages.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentNetflix on Friday officially opened its Italian base in Rome, in a classy neoclassical building near the iconic Via Veneto, and announced a substantial slate of originals that stand as testament to what co-CEO Reed Hastings called the streaming giant’s “growing business in Italy.”“The breadth and variety of our Italian slate perfectly represents our ambitions,” said Hastings, who took the stage at the presentation’s conclusion. Hastings took the opportunity to note how pleased he is that Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” which Netflix produced, scooped top honors at Italy’s David di Donatello Awards, the country’s top film prizes, earlier this week.Netflix’s new Italian slate is headlined by a high-end English-language series adaptation of “The Leopard,” the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

The David di Donatello Awards were held in Rome on Tuesday evening, the first time Italy’s equivalent to the Oscar has had a fully in-person ceremony in the pandemic era. Taking top honors was Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand Of God which scooped Best Film and Director as well as Best Supporting Actress for Teresa Saponangelo and a tie for Best Cinematography. In the latter category, The Hand Of God shared the win with Freaks Out, a fantasy drama that likewise debuted in Venice.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentPaolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated autobiographical drama “The Hand of God” took top honors at Italy’s 67th David di Donatello Awards, winning best picture, director, supporting actress and tying for the best cinematography statuette.Sorrentino’s Naples-set film about the personal tragedy and other vicissitudes that drove him to become a top notch film director had been the frontrunner along with young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the elegant effects-laden historical fantasy “Freaks Out.”“Freaks Out” won six prizes, including for its producer, Andrea Occhipinti, as well as cinematographer, set design, and effects.The cinematography prize, which was a tie, was split between “Hand of God” DP Daria D’Antonio, marking the first time this David goes to a woman, and Michele Attanasio for “Freaks Out.” The Davids were held as a fully in-person ceremony at Rome’s Cinecittà studios just as the famed facilities undergo a radical renewal being implemented by former Sky and Warner Bros. executive Nicola Maccanico.Italian Culture Minister Enrico Franceschini took the stage at the start of the ceremony to reaffirm the Italian government’s support for the local film industry, shortly after announcing plans to widen the window between a movie’s theatrical release date and the time it can drop locally on a streaming platform.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentPaolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each.Here’s the complete list of nominees:PICTURE “Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino “Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore “Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti “Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario MartoneDIRECTOR “Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino “Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore “Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti “Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario MartoneDEBUT DIRECTOR “The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice “Maternal,” Maura Delpero “Small Body,” Laura Samani “Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis “Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile PRODUCER “A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — RAI Cinema “Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto Dina (Tempesta), Michela Pini (Amka) RAI Cinema “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino, Lorenzo Mieli “Freaks Out,” Andrea Occhipinti, Stefano Massenzi, Mattia Guerra (Lucky Red) — Gabriele Mainetti (Goon Films) — RAI Cinema “Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Carlotta Calori (Indigo Film) RAI CinemaACTRESS Swami Rotolo, “A Chiara” Miriam Leone, “Diabolik” Aurora Giovinazzo, “Freaks Out” Rosa Palasciano, “Giulia” Maria Nazionale, “Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter)ACTOR Elio Germano, “America Latina” Silvio Orlando, “Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage) Filippo Scotti, “The Hand of God” Franz Rogowski, “Freaks Out” Toni Servillo, “The King of Laughter”SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentAs they celebrate being held as a physical event, Italy’s upcoming 67th David di Donatello Awards epitomize the ongoing shift in generations and genres that is underway in Cinema Italiano. Leading the pack this year are seasoned auteur Paolo Sorrentino’s most personal film “The Hand of God” and young helmer Gabriele Mainetti’s second feature, the elegant effects-laden historical fantasy “Freaks Out,” which is set in 1943 Rome and involves four “freaks” working in a circus when the Eternal City is bombed by Allied Forces.

Ben Stiller’s former production partner Nicholas Weinstock has struck a first-look deal with Fremantle.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian TV host Alessandro Cattelan will be among the three MCs of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, along with Italy’s Grammy-wining singer Laura Pausini and Lebanese/British pop star Mika. In addition to preparing for the biggest night for music in Europe, he recently made his debut on Netflix with one-man show “One Simple Question.” In the show, Cattelan embarks on a road trip in pursuit of a seemingly simple answer to a question from his daughter, Nina: “Daddy, how do you find happiness?” The quirky six-episode series, which dropped in 190 countries on March 18, sees the showman display his trademark deadpan humor as he searches for happiness through interviews and set-pieces with celebrity guests ranging from retired Italian soccer star Roberto Baggio, who is a practicing Buddhist, and Oscar-nominated director Paolo Sorrentino (“The Hand of God”), to a couple who are amateur porn stars and former Google X exec Mo Gawdat, author of a book titled “Solve for Happy.” Cattelan, who cut his teeth working for MTV and subsequently hosted the talent show “The X Factor” on Sky in Italy, talked to Variety about making the leap into the global streaming arena ahead of his gig for Eurovision, for which his main aspiration is “to make people laugh.” A dozen years ago I had an idea for a show where I would go on a road trip around the U.S.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentIn a move that will transform Italy’s relationship with Netflix, the Italian government has set a firm three-month time window between a movie’s theatrical release and when it can drop on a streaming platform.The announcement was made by Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini during a Rome confab on the state of the country’s film industry held by the country’s motion picture association ANICA.The minister said he has signed a law that will extend the existing 90-day theatrical window for Italian films that had benefitted from government subsidies to now include all films, regardless of where they are produced or how they are financed.Due to its having a more flexible windowing policy than France, Italy in recent years has been an interesting testing ground for the theatrical releases of Netflix titles, largely because the Venice Film Festival is a frequent launching pad for the platform’s original films.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Rome Film Festival is under new management following a political shake-up that has led to the appointment of RAI Cinema executive Paola Malanga as the fest’s artistic director and Gian Luca Farinelli, who heads the Bologna film archives, as president.Malanga, who was appointed late on Tuesday, replaces Antonio Monda, the New York based journalist and film academic who during his seven-year stint at the helm of the event secured a steady stream of high-caliber guests such as Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton and Angelina Jolie, to mention a few names on the Rome red carpet at last year’s edition.Farinelli –– who has been appointed president of the Cinema Per Roma foundation that oversees the Rome fest –– takes the reins from Laura Delli Colli, a prominent film journo and critic who remains on the foundation’s board. The new Rome fest regime was prompted by the election last October of new Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri.The Eternal City extravaganza, which is the brainchild of former Rome mayor Walter Veltroni, has been undergoing management shake-ups due to Italy’s political spoils system ever since its launch in 2006 with Nicole Kidman on the red carpet and ambitions to rival Venice.While Delli Colli exited gracefully, Monda’s departure has been a bit more acrimonious.