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January 2025 could mark a bleak month for very specific reasons, but in that month one can watch a nicely curated collection of David Bowie’s best performances. Nearly a decade since he passed, the iconic actor (who had some other trades) is celebrated with The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Linguini Incident, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Basquiat. (Note: watch The Missing Pieces under Fire Walk with Me‘s Criterion edition for about three times as much Phillip Jeffries.) It’s a retrospective-heavy month: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Paolo Sorrentino, and Sean Baker are given spotlights; the first and last bring with them To Die For and Take Out‘s Criterion Editions, joining Still Walking, Hunger, and A Face in the Crowd.

“Surveillance Cinema” brings Thx 1138, Body Double, Minority Report, and others, while “Love in Disguise” offers films by Lubitsch,...

Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino has set his next feature and will re-team with his longtime collaborator Toni Servillo who has signed on to star.

The film will be titled La Grazia. Fremantle confirmed news of the project with us this morning. There are currently no details about the film’s plot, but we understand it will feature a love story. Sorrentino has penned the screenplay. Shooting will begin next spring with Annamaria Morelli producing for The Apartment alongside Sorrentino’s Numero 10 outfit in association with PiperFilm. Piper will release the film in Italy.

Servillo is perhaps best known internationally for his collaborations with Sorrentino. The pair have made seven films together. Their joint credits include Loro, Il Divo, The Hand Of God, and The Great Beauty, which won the Best International Feature Oscar.

Sorrentino’s latest film Parthenope is currently on release in Italy via PiperFilm. The film debuted at...

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is reteaming with Neapolitan actor Toni Servillo, star of Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, for his next feature, titled La Grazia.

Details of the new film are being kept under wraps, but it is said to be a love story. Sorrentino, who also wrote the script, is set to begin shooting next Spring. Annamaria Morelli, head of Fremantle-owned The Apartment will proceed together with Sorrentino’s shingle Numero 10, in association with PiperFilm, which will release the movie in Italy.

PiperFilm has had huge local success with Sorrentino’s latest, Parthenope, a sumptuous love letter to his native Naples. The feature has grossed more than $8 million at the local box office, making it the most successful Italian film of the year and surpassing the Italian take for Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty. A24 picked up Parthenope for the U.S. ahead of its Cannes festival premiere...

Paolo Sorrentino – whose latest film “Parthenope” is scoring record-breaking grosses at the Italian box office – is set to return behind camera to shoot “La Grazia,” a drama that will re-team the Oscar-winning director with “The Great Beauty” actor Toni Servillo.

Plot details of Sorrentino’s next film are being kept under wraps besides the fact that it will be a love story set somewhere in Italy. The title, “La Grazia,” can be translated in English as “Grace.”

Servillo is best known to international audiences for his memorable turn as Roman writer and socialite Jep Gambardella who embarks on a Dantesque descent amid the Eternal City’s grotesque glitterati in “The Great Beauty,” which won the 2014 best international film Oscar.

The Neapolitan actor has appeared in seven of Sorrentino’s 10 feature films to date, starting with his dazzling debut, “One Man Up” in which Servillo played an ageing cocaine-addicted crooner. Besides “The Great Beauty,...

If he has the option between the Croisette or the Lido, Paolo Sorrentino is going to… France. His Cannes journey began with 2004’s The Consequences of Love, followed by 2006’s Friend of the Family, his masterwork Il Divo, his misstep of 2011’s This Must Be the Place, 2015’s Youth and the two-piecer Loro He returns with a piece of cinema that we could equate to the sweet summer breezy demeanor and while Parthenope lays it on thick with its pristine-looking flair, but how did our critics think about it’s center? Celeste Dalla Porta toplines in what will be a complete early career boost.…...

Gary Oldman took the opportunity to clarify his comments about his acting in the “Harry Potter” franchise during the Cannes press conference for his new film, “Parthenope,” on Wednesday.

When asked about a prior comment in which he disses his performance as Sirius Black as “mediocre,” Oldman said he didn’t mean to “disparage anyone out there who are fans of ‘Harry Potter’ and the films and the character who I think is much beloved.”

“What I meant by that is, as any artist or any actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work,” he continued. “If you’re not, and you’re satisfied with what you’re doing, that would be death to me. If I watched a performance of myself and thought, ‘My God, I’m fantastic in this,’ that would be a sad day.”

He continued, “There was such secrecy that was shrouded around the novels,...

Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino ascended the red carpet here this evening for his latest Cannes competition entry, Parthenope, which was welcomed by a nine-minute standing ovation.

“This movie is a celebration of the journey of my life,” the humbled filmmaker told the crowd.

“The movie is a celebration of the journey of my life” : Paolo Sorrentino says in a speech after the ‘Parthenope’ premiere at #Cannes2024 pic.twitter.com/Z6PhssUcFL

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) May 21, 2024

The movie follows Parthenope, a woman born in the sea of Naples in 1950 who searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters. Sorrentino shot the Italian-French co-production between Naples and Capri.

The pic’s breakout star Celeste Dalla Porta was enthralled by the audience reaction, welling up as they applauded.

The cast also includes Dario Aita, Celeste Dalla Porta, Silvia Degrandi,...

Paolo Sorrentino embraced the stars of his latest film “Parthenope,” including Gary Oldman, Celeste Della Porta and Stefania Sandrelli, as the film received a 9.5-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night.

Tears streamed down the face of Della Porta, who plays the title character, and Sorrentino looked visibly moved as he addressed the crowd.

“For me, this movie is a celebration of the journey of my life,” he said. “I want to thank [Cannes general delegate] Thierry Fremaux for the beginning of my journey in cinema 20 years ago.”

His film “The Consequences of Love” premiered at Cannes two decades ago, and the Italian auteur has certainly made his mark on the festival since. He won the festival’s jury prize in 2008 for “Il Divo” and the prize of the ecumenical jury in 2011 for “This Must Be the Place.” Sorrentino has now had seven films compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or.

Paolo Sorrentino has done a wide range of films but until his most personal, The Hand of God two years ago (a prize winner in Venice), he had not returned to Naples, the land of his youth, except for the very first feature he made, 2001’s One Man Up. Since then though, he has been to Cannes with his films six times, and his impressive list of movies have included The Consequences of Love, Il Divo, Loro and his Oscar-winning The Great Beauty. There have been more mixed reactions for his starry English-language films like Youth and This Must Be the Place, but Italy seems to drive his creative mojo and may be closest to his heart in the current phase of his filmmaking career when he has found new inspiration by going back to his youth, first in Hand of God which closely reflected his own coming of age in Naples,...

Exclusive: A24 has acquired North American rights to Parthenope, the new film from Oscar winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, ahead of its world premiere at the 77th Festival de Cannes.

Parthenope is the seventh Sorrentino movie to play the Croisette following 2004’s The Consequences of Love, 2008’s Il Divo which won the Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2011’s This Must Be the Place starring Sean which also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2013’s The Great Beauty and 2015’s Youth. The Great Beauty would go on to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2014.

Sorrentino’s previous directorial, The Hand of God, inspired by his youth, received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best International Film and was released on Netflix stateside.

Pathe is handling foreign sales and is releasing the movie in France and Switzerland.

The movie follows Parthenope, who born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness...

Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Paolo Sorrentino’s new film that is currently shooting in Naples.

Details about Oldman’s role in the still-untitled Italian-language drama are being kept under wraps.

Sorrentino’s 10th feature is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” as the auteur – who won an international Oscar in 2013 for “The Great Beauty” –put it in a statement to Variety in June, when the shoot started.

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.”

“Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth’s lightheartedness and its demise,...

Roughly two years after his return to Naples for “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino is heading back to his hometown for another movie steeped in the lore of his native southern port city.

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.”

Shooting on Sorrentino’s new film is set to start “at the end of June” and will take place in Naples and on the island of Capri.

Here is the film’s full director’s statement,...

Exclusive: Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) is due to start filming a new movie in June, we can reveal.

Set between the picturesque Italian island of Capri and Sorrentino’s city of birth, Naples, the movie will reunite the filmmaker with The Apartment producer Lorenzo Mieli after their collaborations on Oscar nominee The Hand Of God and series The New Pope, The Young Pope and Sei Pezzi Facili. Script comes from Sorrentino.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but we hear the project will deal with “the human condition”.

Naples and its surrounding area were the setting for the director’s most recent film, 2021 drama The Hand Of God.

Contrary to a handful of online reports in the past week, we hear the film won’t be based on myths surrounding The Siren of Parthenope or star Gomorrah actor Giampiero De Concilio.

There’s no word yet...

03 March 2014 by Sydney Levine in SydneysBuzz

The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), Italy’s Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film

Inspirational and awe-inspiring are the words that come to mind first when I think about the great movie just out of Italy, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) from acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino ( Il Divo, The Consequences of Love, This Must be the Place) with a screenplay by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello.

I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo (Gomorrah, Il Divo). In fact, after interviewing Paolo Sorrentino recently at the Chateau Marmont, I feel compelled to watch it again in order to understand the ending’s reference to what might have been the subject of the original and only book Jeb ever wrote which was perhaps (according to Paolo) “about the love he had for the girl — and you can see that at the end of the movie”.

During my interview, I tried not to discuss how the film carries echoes of the classic works of Federico Fellini as Sorrentino had already gone on record stating that, “Roma and La Dolce Vita are works that you cannot pretend to ignore when you take on a film like the one I wanted to make. They are two masterpieces and the golden rule is that masterpieces should be watched but not imitated. I tried to stick to that. But it’s also true that masterpieces transform the way we feel and perceive things.”

A dazzling tour through modern day Rome through the eyes of Jep Gambardella gives us feelings for grandeur whose beauty can lead to death, to dangerous adventures leading nowhere and to a certain level of sadness. When his 65th birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

The stripper daughter of his old friend and nightclub owner represents a simpler normality as does his housekeeper. Both are touchstones to a reality he has abandoned since becoming a permanent fixture in Rome’s literary and social circles after the legendary success of his one and only novel. Armed with a roguish charm, he has seduced his way through the city’s lavish night life for decades.

As an interviewer for popular press, his curiosity about everything is satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time. He finds his yearning for simplicity is sparked when he rather cynically interviews a saintly nun and more importantly, he finds the seed for his next book in the simple, normal lives of ordinary people and in the fragility of those snobbish, superficial, gossiping “friends” with whom he has spent too much time weaving a uselessly complicated life of nothingness, living in a world which makes no sense.

There are many literary references in the film — Flaubert who wanted to write a book about nothing, Proust whose masterpiece “capitalizes on his own biography”, Celine whose opening line to his novel Journey to the End of the Night is also the film’s opening line.

This quote from Celine is a declaration of intent that I followed in turn in the film. It comes down to saying: there’s reality, but everything is invented too. Invention is necessary in cinema, just to attain the truth.

What is it about the Flaubert references?

Flaubert said he wanted to write a book about nothing. This gave him the right to write about the frivolous, gossip, nothing and it acquired a literary standing. Nothingness becomes life. It takes on a life of its own and life’s nothingness is its beauty.

Jeb is living it among awkward, weak people, even hateful people. This is life and all of it belongs to The Great Beauty. The immediacy of the beauty of Rome is obvious, but the subterranean part — like these horrible people around him, you realize they are are also so vulnerable and fragile and that gives them and him the redeeming grace of beauty. The communist writer is emblematic.

Are you an intellectual?

I don’t like to think that I am. I do read a lot. I read more than I watch movies.

What do you do in your free time?

I hibernate. I hibernate until the next project takes shape in my mind. I watch a lot of football. And I tend to my family. I have two children aged 10 and 16 who keep me very busy.

Do you find that the Italian character is theatrical?

In my hometown (Naples), the people are extraordinarily theatrical. Orson Welles himself, on seeing Neapolitan actor Eduardo de Felipo said that he was the greatest actor in the world.

Whatever you say about it, Italy has an extraordinary pool of actors of every sort. They are all very different, from many different backgrounds, but all with often under-exploited potential, all just waiting to find good characters.

Tony Servillo is also from Naples, like I am. He is an actor I can ask anything of, because he is capable of doing absolutely everything. I can now move forward with him with my eyes closed, not only as far as work goes, but also in terms of our friendship, a friendship which over time becomes more joyful, lighter yet deeper at the same time.

Tony Servillo is quoted as saying about Sorrentino:

We have something in common which we both cultivate, and that’s a taste for mystery. That has something to do with esteem, with a sense of irony and self-mockery, with certain similar sources of melancholy, and certain subjects or themes of reflection. These affinities are renewed each time we meet, as if it were the first time, without there being any need for a closer relationship between one film and the next. We meet and it’s as if we’ve never been apart. And that means there’s a deep friendship between us, and that’s what so great.

Thank you Paolo for this interview. I wish you all the luck in winning not only the Nomination but also the prize of the Academy Award.

I also want to draw the reader’s attention to the fabulous photography of cinematographer Luca Bigazzi and the music of Lele Marchitel, who juxtaposes original music with repertory music of sacred and profane, pop music reflecting the city itself and to the extraordinary pool of actors, Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi and Galatea Ranzi, Massimo de Francovich, Roberto Herlitzka and Isabella Ferrari.

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times called this visually spectacular film “an outlandishly entertaining hallucination”, and according to Variety’s Jay Weissberg it’s an “astonishing cinematic feast”.

This rapturous highlight of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it played in Competition was acquired for U.S. by Janus Films who will release it theatrically in N.Y. on November 15, L.A. on November 22, expanding to other cities on November 29, with a home video release from the Criterion Collection.

“We were swept away by this gorgeous, moving film at Cannes”, said Peter Becker, president of the Criterion Collection and a partner in Janus Films. “Sorrentino is one of the most exciting directors working today, and Toni Servillo gives another majestic, multilayered performance.”

The deal to distribute Sorrentino’s film in the U.S. was struck with international distributor Pathé. “Janus has over the years become a valued partner in the promotion of Pathé’s heritage in the U.S. through its releases of our library titles, and we are, of course, thrilled to once again partner up with this company for the release of this film which represents the finest of Italian cinema today and at the same time pays a respectful homage to its nation’s cinematic past”, said Muriel Sauzay, Evp, International Sales.

For more information on the film visit Here

La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) also screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was recently award the European Film Academy award for its editing by Cristiano Travaglioli. Since its Cannes debut, it has sold to Australia — Palace Films , Austria — Filmladen , Benelux — Abc — Cinemien , Brazil — Mares Filmes Ltda. , Canada — Mongrel Media, Métropole Films Distribution , Czech Republic — Film Europe, Denmark — Camera Film A/S , Estonia -Must Käsi, France — Canal + , Germany — Dcm , Greece — Feelgood Entertainment, Hong Kong (China) — Edko Films Ltd , Israel — United King Films, Italy — Medusa Distribuzione, Norway — As Fidalgo Film Distribution , Portugal — Lusomundo, Russia — A-One Films , Slovak Republic — Film Europe (Sk) , Switzerland — Pathe Films Ag , United Kingdom — Curzon Film World...

When Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino reached his milestone 50th birthday, he decided the occasion was ripe with the potential to break away from many of the enduring ways he made distinctive, much lauded projects and experiment with new cinematic and storytelling techniques. And for his next film, The Hand of God, he decided to plumb the depths of his own past as well.

“Why now?” ponders Sorrentino. “I started to look at the past, without being too much involved. So in these past years, I’m able to see into my past with sort of an objective lens, and this is helpful to put in order the things in my life.”

“I had this story I was scared to do because it’s very personal, but because it’s a painful story...

Viaplay Strikes Mega Banijay Scripted Deal On Eve Of U.S. Launch

Ahead of its U.S. launch, Nent-owned Scandi streamer Viaplay has struck a mega deal with Banijay Rights for 250 hours worth of premium scripted Nordic content. Viaplay subs in the U.S. will have access to the likes of Norwegian culture-clash comedy Countrymen, Swedish high-school drama series A Class Apart and two eight-part series of Black Lake, along with the first two runs of Wallander and Wallander UK. Viaplay will launch towards the end of this month in the U.S. before rolling out in several European territories next year in an expansion bid. Banijay Rights’ Matt Creasey, who brokered the deal, said it will “become a cornerstone of Viaplay’s launch in the U.S.”

Firebird Pictures Signs Duo And Options Two Novels

Bodyguard exec Elizabeth Kilgarriff’s UK drama indie Firebird Pictures has hired a Director of Production and Development Executive,...

Italian producer Domenico Procacci, after shepherding more than 100 movies and several TV series, including Netflix’s upcoming Elena Ferrante adaptation “The Lying Life of Adults,” via his Fandango shingle, is debuting as a director with six-part documentary series “The Team.” Variety speaks to Procacci exclusively about what prompted him to go behind the camera for what he says is just a one-off experience as a director, and debuts the English-language subtitled version of the trailer, above.

The project is a deeply researched reconstruction of the complex – and sometimes comical – dynamics behind the Italian tennis team that won the 1976 Davis Cup and reached the finals for this trophy three other times between 1976 and 1980.

In “The Team,” which is being presented as a work-in-progress at the Torino Film Festival, the protagonists are the team’s players, Adriano Panatta, Corrado Barazzutti, Paolo Bertolucci, Tonino Zugarelli, and its captain, Italian tennis legend Nicola Pietrangeli.

The Hand of God In April 1987, Paolo Sorrentino’s parents left Naples for a weekend gateway in Roccaraso, Abruzzo. The future Oscar winner was meant to come along, but turned down the invite on account of a far juicier plan: a die-hard Napoli fan, his football team was to play an away match against Empoli, which meant a chance for the lad to see his hero, Greatest Player ff All Time Diego Armando Maradona, dispense his genius on the pitch. As it turned out, Sorrentino’s parents never made it back—they died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater, and the boy was left an orphan. He was only sixteen. “It was Maradona,” a relative exclaims in the director’s latest and most personal project to date, The Hand of God: “He saved you!” A portrait of the filmmaker as an adolescent, the film traces a sentimental...

Filming on Marco Chiappetta’s first work, a Teatri Uniti and RiverStudio production, has wrapped in Naples. Shooting has wrapped on Santa Lucia, the debut work by the 29-year-old Neapolitan screenwriter and director Marco Chiappetta. Led by Renato Carpentieri and Andrea Renzi who are cast as two brothers, the film is produced by Teatri Uniti – the long-standing theatre company directed by Toni Servillo which has supported cinema productions such as Morte di un matematico napoletano and L’amore molesto by Mario Martone, as well as One Man Up and The Consequences of Love by Paolo Sorrentino – together with RiverStudio. The film recounts the return to Naples, following forty years spent in Buenos Aires, of Roberto, a writer who is now blind, of his meeting with his brother Lorenzo and of the troubling past which emerges from their childhood memories, set against the backdrop of the city as we’ve never seen.

Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) is set to star in Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” which started shooting last week in Naples, the Oscar-winning director’s hometown.

Production of Sorrentino’s new pic, which is produced by Fremantle-backed The Apartment for Netflix, has since moved to the Sicilian island of Stromboli, according to a well-placed source who on Monday confirmed Italian press reports regarding both Servillo’s casting and the film’s shoot.

Fremantle did not respond to request for comment.

Described by Sorrentino in promotional materials as an “intimate and personal film,” “The Hand of God” marks Sorrentino’s return to making a film mainly set, and shot, in his native Naples, 20 years after his feature debut “One Man Up” in 2001, in which Servillo played a cocaine-addled club singer.

Servillo, a frequent fixture in Sorrentino’s work, has since performed in four other films by the Neapolitan director.

The David di Donatello Awards, which are modeled on the Oscars, were established in the 1950s as Italy’s film industry started thriving amid the country’s postwar reconstruction effort.

Below are some milestones that provide a partial mini-history of postwar Italian cinema.

1956: The first David di Donatello awards ceremony takes place at Rome’s Cinema Fiamma. The gold statuette, which is a replica of Michelangelo’s David, is made by Bulgari. Vittorio De Sica, Walt Disney, and Gina Lollobrigida are among the year’s prizewinners.

1957: The Davids ceremony moves to Taormina’s Ancient Greek Theater, which will host the ceremony for many more years to come. Federico Fellini wins the best director prize for “Nights of Cabiria.”

1958: Anna Magnani wins best actress for George Cukor’s “Wild Is the Wind.” Marilyn Monroe is feted for her role in “The Prince and the Showgirl,” directed by Laurence Olivier.

Over the top, excessive, too much reliance on anonymous sexy young women for thrills…definitely an inferior work! Let’s hope it is not a trend.

I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo.”

Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.

For some people, This Must Be The Place will be the new Sean Penn flick, for others it will be the new Paolo Sorrentino film. The difference may seem futile, but based on this simple distinction you might say that roughly one group is going to appreciate the film for what it is, while the other group will end up being bored to death. I'm in the believers group and thoroughly enjoyed Sorrentino's latest effort, but it's definitely not a film for everyone. Ever since I discovered Sorrentino's Le Conseguenze dell'Amore, I've been following the man with heightened enthusiasm. Il Divo was a small disappointment, but with This Must Be The Place Sorrentino proves that Le Conseguenze dell'Amore was more than just a lucky hit....

For some people This Must Be The Place is going to be the new Sean Penn flick, for others it will be the new Paolo Sorrentino film. The difference may seem futile, but based on this simple distinction you might say that roughly one group is going to appreciate the film for what it is, while the other group will end up being bored to death. I'm in the believers group and thoroughly enjoyed Sorrentino's latest effort, but it's definitely not a film for everyone.Ever since I discovered Sorrentino's Le Conseguenze dell'Amore I've been following the man with heightened enthusiasm. Il Divo was a small disappointment, but with This Must Be The Place Sorrentino proves that Le Conseguenze dell'Amore was more than just a lucky...

Producers of Paolo Sorrentino's latest project 'This Must be the Place' are currently scouting locations in Ireland with a view to possibly filming the project here this summer. The Indigo Film's production is rumoured to star Oscar winning actor Sean Penn (Milk). 'This Must be the Place' tells the story of a former rock star who decides to track down his father's killer, an ex-Naxi. Speaking to Iftn, Indigo Films confirmed the film will mark the English language directorial debut of Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo, Le Conseguenze dell'Amore) who wrote the film's screenplay alongside Umberto Contarello (La Partita Lenta, Luce dei Miei Occhi). Sorrentino picked up the Cannes Jury Prize in 2008 for his widely acclaimed feature 'Il Divo'.

ROME -- Paolo Sorrentino's controversial film about famed Italian political powerbroker Giulio Andreotti will start filming next month, with or without the help of the seven-time prime minister.

Sorrentino -- a two-time Palme d'Or nominee at Cannes -- announced the plans for the highly anticipated film last month, claiming that the 88-year-old Andreotti gave the project his blessing. But Andreotti responded a day later saying he had never met Sorrentino and that he hoped the film would never be made.

But producers indicated Monday that it will indeed be made, with a €4.2 million ($5.7 million) budget split between four production houses: Italian producers Indigo Film, Lucky Red and Parco Film along with French company Babe Films. Filming is set to begin in June.

Toni Servillo, who won a David di Donatello Award for best actor for Sorrentino's 2004 film Conseguenze dell'Amore (Consequences of Love), will play Andreotti in the film.

When contacted, Sorrentino would not say if Andreotti had finally decided to give his blessing to the project.

CANNES -- Giovanni Veronesi and Ferzan Ozpetek led the way with 12 David di Donatello nominations each for their respective films Manuale D'Amore (Manual of Love) and Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart), Italy's equivalent to the Oscars. Both films were nominated in the best film category. Paolo Sorrentino's Le Consequenze dell'amore (The Consequences of Love) and Gianni Amelio's Le Chiavi di Casa (The House Keys) received 10 and seven award nominations respectively including best film and director nominations. Rounding out the best film category was Certi Bambini (Certain Kids), which was directed by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi. Both Ozpetek and the Frazzi brothers were nominated for best director as was Davide Ferrario for Dopo Mezzanotte (After Midnight), which received ten nominations.

ROME -- Gianni Amelio's Le chiavi di casa (The Keys to the House) was awarded Italy's Nastro D'Argento for best film, and Sergio Castellitto's Non Ti Muovere (Don't Move) garnered three awards, including best screenplay. Sophomore director Paolo Sorrentino and his film Le conseguenze dell'amore (The Consequences of Love) also fared well, with the film's protagonist Toni Servillo winning best actor, Raffaele Pisu winning best supporting actor and Sorrentino himself winning the Nastro D'Argento for best subject. Aurelio De Laurentiis was awarded the best producer award for his work on Che ne sara di noi (What Will Happen to Us) and Tutto in quella notte (All in a Night).