Netflix Opens Rome Office, Ramps Up Italian Slate Headlined by ‘The Leopard’ Series
variety.comNick 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.
It’s a historical tapestry with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” and clear aspirations to make a global mark. “The novel has some narrative threads involving family and sensuality that are unexplored and extremely timely,” said Eleonora Andreatta, known as Tinny, who heads Netflix’s Italian original series unit.British director Tom Shankland, whose credits include Netflix’s true crime series “The Serpent,” will be the lead director on what is being described as a modern take on the Sicilian saga, which was famously adapted into a film (pictured) by Luchino Visconti and starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster.
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