RAI Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Marta Balaga Maura Delpero’s second feature “Vermiglio, the Mountain Bride” – which is being presented at the Venice Production Bridge, the industry program of the Venice Film Festival, this week – has tapped Giuseppe De Domenico as its lead. The Italian actor, known for “Zero Zero Zero” and Prime Video’s “Bang Bang Baby,” will play Pietro, a young soldier who in 1944 arrives in a small mountain village in Trentino, northern Italy. As declared by the film’s tagline, change is around the corner: “Last year of World War II.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “The Sea Beyond,” the Naples-set prison drama that has become a pop culture phenomenon in Italy, has been bought by U.S. streamer MHz Choice for North America.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Eleonora Andreatta, Netflix’s VP of Italian originals who oversees the streaming giant’s local output of series, movies, and non-scripted shows, will receive the ITTV International Award during the Venice Film Festival from the Los-Angeles based Italian Television Festival. Affectionately known as Tinny, Eleonora Andreatta has long been a fundamental figure in Italian scripted content production.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Franco-Tunisian film and TV entrepreneur Tarak Ben Ammar is expanding the scope of his Italian operations by buying local unscripted production outfit Blu Yazmine, while also entering talks to build a large studio complex in Rome. Though Ben Ammar’s ambition to build sprawling new filming facilities in the Italian capital are in advanced talks but not fully concrete, the purchase of a majority stake in Blu Yazmine via his Rome-based Eagle Pictures has been closed.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent An underhanded move by members of Italy’s right-wing government to try and take over the management of Rome’s Centro Sperimentale Film School is prompting an uproar by its students and a strong show of support from the country’s top directors. Earlier this week, students of the Centro Sperimentale — which is the oldest film school in the world, and among the finest — staged a demonstration in front of the country’s parliament just as a piece of legislation that would change the school’s management was swiftly being approved by a parliamentary committee.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Beta Film has sold more than 100 hours of drama series to PBS Distribution-backed Walter Presents for the U.S., and Channel 4-backed Walter Presents for the U.K. Five seasons of Italy’s gritty crime series “Rocco Schiavone” as well as Canadian mystery dramas “The Wall – The Chateau Murder” and “The Wall – The Orchard” will be available in both territories.

State Italian broadcaster Rai has axed a factual organized crime series by Gomorrah creator Roberto Saviano out of the blue, prompting accusations of political interference.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Matteo Garrone, who is a two-time Cannes jury prizewinner with “Gomorrah” in 2008 and “Reality” in 2012, is set to be in competition in Venice for the first time with his immigration-themed drama “Io Capitano.” Shot over 13 weeks in Senegal, Italy and Morocco with a cast of non-professional actors, the Italian auteur’s new film – the title for which translates to “I Captain” – narrates the Homeric journey of two young African men, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe. It depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea.

Deadline can reveal a first clip for Italian director Saverio Costanzo’s new film Finally Dawn (Finalemente L’Alba) following the announcement on Tuesday of its world premiere in Competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival.

Julia MacCary editor Through TikTok’s rise and the now-looming threat of its being banned — many states have some kind of ban on the app already — the social platform has undeniably made people laugh and, inadvertently, ushered in a new generation of comics. Providing short-form video content where the talent is at the steering wheel, they are free to post as much as they want (within the app’s guidelines), and their reach is subject only to the ever-present yet still unknown algorithm. For some TikTok stars, the app has allowed them to chase their artistic dreams. For others, it has helped them unlock a dormant skill and uncover a new path into the industry. DeMarcus Shawn (@artbydemarcusshawn) started making TikTok videos after he left his job at Starbucks. As his TikToks gained traction amid the pandemic, his search for a new job ended and TikTok became his career, he tells Variety over coffee in Chicago after kindly greeting a fan who recognized him. Being a public figure is still a weird feeling he admits, having now amassed a following of over six million on the platform.