Why Disney, Amazon and More Are Bringing Projects to Sicily

variety.com:

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.

Cameras rolled in October in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, on Amazon Studios’ dark Mafia comedy “The Bad Guy,” which is being produced by Indigo Film, the shingle behind Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar winner “The Great Beauty.”The series revolves around a Sicilian public prosecutor named Nino Scotellaro, played by Sicilian thesp Luigi Lo Cascio, who devoted his whole life to fighting Cosa Nostra and finds himself accused and condemned of being a mafioso himself.

He then pulls off a Machiavellian revenge plan, becoming the “bad guy.”Netflix was also recently in Palermo for its strictly local Italian original “Incastrati,” starring Sicilian comedy duo Ficarra and Picone.