Nick Vivarelli International: Last News

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent YouTube Original doc “The Letter: A Message For Our Earth,” an unprecedented call to action for climate change from Pope Francis, featuring his dialogues with activists from the Brazilian Amazon, India, Senegal and the U.S., launched on Tuesday from Vatican City. The high-profile ecological doc is directed by Emmy-winning director Nicolas Brown (“Serengeti Rules”) and produced by Off The Fence, the company behind Oscar-winning doc “My Octopus Teacher,” in tandem with the Laudato si’ Movement which is a global Catholic climate change organization. Shot in cinematic style, “The Letter” takes its cue from the pope’s landmark Laudato si’ environmental encyclical and interweaves the lives of five main characters, comprising Amazon rain forest tribe chief Cacique Odair “Dadá” Borari; Ridhima Pandey, a young climate activist from India; Senegalese climate refugee Arouna Kandé who is a student in sustainable development; and U.S. scientists Greg Asner and Robin Martin who have developed an innovative technique to map underwater heat waves that kill coral reefs.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Global porn icon Rocco Siffredi’s life will be depicted in the Netflix original series “Supersex,” but he’s claiming that the show will not be a realistic portrayal. “This beautiful story is inspired by my life, but it is not my life,” Siffredi said in an interview published over the weekend by Italy’s FQ Magazine. “Everything you will see in ‘Supersex’ originates from me, but then the writer put a lot of herself into it.” “Supersex” is created and written by prominent Italian screenwriter Francesca Manieri (“We Are Who We Are,” “L’Immensità”). It was described in a Netflix statement last week as “a profound story” that runs through Siffredi’s life “since childhood.” The show will look at Siffredi’s family, his origins, his relationship with love and “the starting point and the context that led him to embark on his path in pornography.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Tim Burton’s “Wednesday” series starring Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams will have its European premiere in Italy at Lucca Comics & Games with Burton attending the launch at Europe’s biggest geek meet.  Lucca Comics – which is an immersive cross-media event dedicated to pop culture, cosplay and comics held in the medieval Tuscan town of Lucca – has been chosen by Netflix as the venue for the European unveiling of the first “Wednesday” episode on Oct. 31.  Burton has executive produced and directed four of the show’s eight episodes, with Gandja Monteiro and James Marshall serving as additional directors. “Wednesday” is produced by MGM Television for Netflix.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Emmy award-winning Swedish director Johan Renck (“Chernobyl”) and producer Michael Parets (“Spaceman”) have launched a new production company called Sinestra and signed a two-year television first-look deal with Fremantle. Their first TV collaboration with Fremantle will be the TV series “Mouth to Mouth” based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Antoine Wilson about the raucous L.A. art scene of the 1990s. Under the deal, Fremantle will also be the new home for all of Sinestra’s upcoming televisions projects. Selected TV projects will be co-owned, co-developed and co-produced, with Fremantle leading on physical production, raising production finance and international sales, the company said in a statement.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Live sports streaming service DAZN has struck a deal to buy global sports media business ELEVEN Group, which holds rights to the top soccer leagues in Portugal and Belgium.  The deal, for an undisclosed sum, will boost DAZN’s offerings in Italy, German-speaking markets and Spain, where it already holds top league domestic soccer rights. Additionally, ELEVEN has a presence in Taiwan and other Southeast Asian markets, which will give DAZN a greater foothold in that region where the service is already market leader in Japan, the company said in a statement. The deal also includes ELEVEN-owned Team Whistle, which is a short-form original social media content provider said by DAZN to have over 700 million followers across its channels. Team Whistle is estimated to bring total revenue of around $300 million a year, DAZN said.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The life of global porn icon Rocco Siffredi is the subject of a new Netflix original series titled “Supersex,” which has started shooting in Rome. The seven-episode drama is freely inspired by the real life of Siffredi, who has more than 1,500 hardcore films to his name. But, in an interesting career twist, Siffredi has also shot two arthouse pics, Catherine Breillat’s “Romance” and “Anatomy of Hell.” His Budapest-based Rocco Siffredi Prods. is a porn industry powerhouse. Siffredi was also the subject of the documentary “Rocco,” directed by French duo Thierry Demaiziere and Alban Teurlai, which screened at the 2016 Venice Film Festival. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy on Monday took a sharp turn towards the right as Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, emerged as big winners in the country’s national elections. Final results on Monday showed Meloni and her party winning roughly 26% of the vote and the center-right coalition she leads scoring 44% of parliamentary preferences, while Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League won nearly 9% and former prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia took 8%. Meloni’s closest challenger, with some 19.3% of the vote, is the center-left Democratic Party headed by Enrico Letta, who has announced his resignation. Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement — which had won the vote in Italy’s 2018 parliamentary elections — saw its support halved to some 15% this time around.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent As protests continue to erupt in Iran and around the world sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini – the young Iranian woman who died last week while being held in custody by morality police for allegedly wearing a loose headscarf – the country’s film community is intensely engaged and keenly aware that their voices are now even more at risk of being quashed. Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“A Separation”), who is currently presiding over the Zurich Film Festival jury, has issued a statement and a video appeal urging artists around the world to proclaim their solidarity with the Iranian people who are protesting against the death of Amini.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent An English-language reimagining of the world of Sergio Corbucci’s cult 1966 spaghetti western “Django,” which launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is set to launch from the Rome Film Festival in October. The high–concept TV series, titled “Django,” will play in 2023 exclusively on Sky and its streaming service NOW in all countries where Sky operates, including the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. It will also air on Canal+ in France, Switzerland, Benelux and Africa. The Rome Film Festival runs from Oct. 13-23. The 10-episode “Django” show stars Matthias Schoenaerts (“Rust and Bone,” “Bullhead”) as the iconic gunman who is the title character, alongside Nicholas Pinnock (“For Life”) as John Ellis, described as the “visionary founder” of the town of New Babylon. Lisa Vicari (“Dark”) plays Django’s daughter Sarah and Noomi Rapace (Millennium Trilogy) has the adversarial role of John’s powerful and ruthless enemy Elizabeth Thurman. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 17th annual Rome Film Festival will fete James Ivory with a career honor, a mini retrospective and the Italian launch of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s personal new documentary “A Cooler Climate.” Ivory is expected in Rome to receive the award and present the doc about his life as a traveler that takes its cue from boxes of film the director shot during a life-changing trip to Afghanistan in 1960. The film premieres beforehand at the New York Film Festival. Rome’s Ivory mini-retrospective will comprise his films “Maurice”; “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,” starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward; “The Remains of the Day”; and “A Room With a View.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Russell Crowe will be a guest of honor of the Rome Film Festival’s independently run Alice in the City section where his second directorial effort, the thriller “Poker Face” – in which he stars opposite Liam Hemsworth – is set to have its world premiere. Set in the world of high-stakes betting, “Poker Face” stars Crowe as tech billionaire and gambler Jake Foley, who offers his best friends a chance to win more money than they’ve ever dreamed of. But to play, they’ll have to give up the one thing they spend their lives trying to keep – their secrets. As the game unfolds, the long-time pals will discover what is really at stake.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer Andrea Iervolino (“Waiting for the Barbarians”) has acquired a controlling stake in central London’s Mercato Metropolitano food market and teamed with British music producer David Tickle’s Tickle Entertainment on a doc series set there about global food culture. Iervolino, whose Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment (ILBE) company produces feature films including Bobby Moresco’s upcoming “Lamborghini,” is also the founder of innovative digital entertainment platform TaTaTu, a social media platform that uses a form of cryptocurrency called TTU Coins. TaTaTu recently acquired a controlling stake in London’s Mercato Metropolitano from its founder Andrea Rasca who in 2016 established this pioneering community market as a space for social exchange and environmental sustainability. The Mercato is now being used as the location for an upcoming docu-series chronicling the journey of four chefs who sought refuge in the United Kingdom respectively from Syria, Namibia, Nepal, and Uzbekistan.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi-owned MBC Group has officially opened its new headquarters in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in a move that will boost its stated mission to serve as a driver to kickstart the kingdom’s nascent film and TV industry. The broadcaster which is the top satellite free-to-air player in the Middle East and North Africa, and also a major MENA region premium streamer, held a gala opening on Monday attended by a host of Saudi royal family members, ministers, and foreign ambassadors, according to a statement. Other guests included MBC’s executive directors in addition to local talents and hosts of MBC’s TV channels and also from news service Al Arabiya in which MBC owns a minority stake.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Egyptian-American director Dina Amer’s politically sensitive drama “You Resemble Me,” the story of Hasna Aït Boulahcen who in 2015 was wrongly believed to be Europe’s first female suicide bomber, is getting a Middle East release via Front Row Filmed Entertainment. Amer’s feature debut, which world premiered positively at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, is a deeply researched character study of the fragile young Muslim woman who became linked to the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris even though she didn’t participate in them. Aït Boulahcen died during an anti-terrorism raid alongside her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was one of the ringleaders of the coordinated assaults that killed 130 people in the French capital, including 90 at the Bataclan theater. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The Locarno Film Festival is switching to gender-neutral categories starting from next year’s 2023 edition. The prominent Swiss fest dedicated to global indie cinema is following in the footsteps of the Berlin Film Festival, which in 2021 awarded its first gender neutral acting prize. Unlike Berlin, however, Locarno will hand out two gender-neutral prizes for best performance in both the fest’s main competition and its Cineasti del Presente competition for first and second works. When Berlin did away with awards for the best actor and actress it subbed them with single gender neutral prizes for best leading performance and best supporting performance.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Gianni Amelio’s “Lord of the Ants,” a biopic of Italian poet and playwright Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law, has reached the top spot at Italy’s box office following its launch from the Venice Film Festival. “Ants” on Monday reached the numero uno position at the local box office roster with a €483,474 ($487,000) intake from more than 300 screens following its September 8 release. While far from stellar in normal times, this result is being hailed as an encouraging sign for the country’s still sagging post-pandemic theatrical sector. Amelio’s film is now ahead of Japanese anime pic “Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo,” which was released as an event on Monday for a three day run, and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which is at the end of its run, following it’s Aug. 18 Italian outing.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian actor Leila Hatami, best known outside her country for her role in Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning “A Separation,” will soon be back on international movie screens in Iranian-British director Mehdi Norowzian’s metaphysical drama “A Time in Eternity” which recently wrapped in Iran. “There isn’t one scene without me,” Hatami told Variety, speaking on the sidelines of the just concluded Venice Film Festival where she was a member of the main jury. The London-based Norowzian, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1999 short “Killing Joe” and subsequently directed Joseph Fiennes, Elizabeth Shue, Dennis Hopper and Sam Shepherd in the 2002 drama “Leo,” has since become a prominent commercials director. Norowzian recently returned to Iran to shoot this film, which is his first feature after two decades.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Prime Video has inked an overall creative deal with Italian writer-director Antonio Dikele Distefano, who is the originator of groundbreaking Netflix original series “Zero” that in 2021 marked Italy’s first show centered around the present-day lives of black Italian youth. Dikele, who was born in Italy to Angolan parents, is now making his feature film debut with an Amazon original film titled “Autumn Beat,” a coming-of-age drama about two brothers named Tito and Paco, who grew up in Milan and have the same dream: to break into the rap music world. “The duo seem destined for success—Paco is a born performer and Tito knows how to write like no other—but ambition, life, and love for the same woman will test their bond,” says the provided synopsis.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix and Ubisoft have partnered on a new “Assassin’s Creed” mobile game and two other mobile titles that will be available exclusively on mobile to Netflix members globally with no ads or in-house purchases. The other two titles are a new “Valiant Hearts” game, which is a sequel to Ubisoft’s award-winning game “Valiant Hearts: The Great War,” directed by its original core team but featuring a new story, and a sequel to Ubisoft’s “The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot” mobile game, which was shut down in 2016. All three mobile games will be available to Netflix members in 2023.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian director Paolo Virzì (“Human Capital,” “Like Crazy”) is in Venice where his dystopic drama “Siccità,” which means drought in Italian, is premiering out-of-competition. The innovative pic, which features an A-list ensemble cast comprising Monica Bellucci, Sara Serraiocco (“Counterpart”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”), is set amid a protracted drought caused by climate change in the Italian capital where the Tiber has dried up. Virzì spoke to Variety about how “Siccità” germinated during COVID-19 and was shot amid tight pandemic protocols. Excerpts. You worked with novelist and screenwriter Paolo Giordano on the concept and the script for this film. How did the collaboration start?

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent With “Chiara,” Susanna Nicchiarelli’s portrait of Saint Clare of Assisi – the 13th century saint born into a wealthy family who at age 18 became a nun after hearing St. Francis preach – the Italian director completes her trilogy of female biopics, segueing from “Nico, 1988” and “Miss Marx,” which both launched from Venice’s Horizons section. With “Chiara,” she makes the leap into the main Venice competition. Nicchiarelli spoke to Variety about what drew her to portraying this prototypical feminist and directing “My Brilliant Friend” star Margherita Mazzucco in the pic’s titular role. Excerpts. What drove you to want to tell us this story about St. Clare?Well, first of all, I was always passionate about Saint Francis. I have a very strong memory when I first saw Franco Zeffirelli’s “Brother Sun, Sister Moon.” I was at school when they showed it to us and this boy, this man, taking his clothes off in front of the Bishop. That was a very strong image. Francis’ battle speaks to us just as much today because it’s a battle for poverty, against social injustice. It’s about being on the side of the poor, of those who are different, and the injustices of a society in which very few have everything and then most have nothing. So, this was their battle. The medieval society was like that. It’s not so different from the way it is now.