Italy’s Leone Movie Group — which is in Cannes as a producer of James Gray’s competitors entry “Paper Tiger” — is about to make an bold origins film about Sergio Leone’s quest to shoot “Once Upon a Time in America,” the gangster epic that premiered at Cannes in 1984 and is now thought-about a masterpiece.
“It’s basically the story of a man who chases a dream for his entire life,” Raffaella Leone, who’s Sergio Leone’s daughter, informed Selection. “Or, at least, who took 15 years to make a movie and didn’t do anything else until he managed to make it. And it’s told with my father’s irony.”
Italian directorial duo Giuseppe Stasi and Giancarlo Fontana — who broke out Prime Video’s darkish and comedian crime collection “The Bad Guy” — are set to helm the yet-to-be-titled “Once Upon a Time in America” origins image that they’re writing with “The Bad Guy” scribe Ludovica Rampoldi.
The movie will criss-cross by means of totally different time durations, together with flashbacks to Sergio Leone’s childhood. It will likely be set in Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Cannes, which is the place Leone first met Arnon Milchan, who produced “Once Upon a Time in America” and the place the epic subsequently premiered to blended opinions.
Raffaella Leone, who’s Leone Movie Group’s co-CEO, is producing the “Time in America” origins movie in tandem with Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, chief technique officer of Italy’s EssilorLuxottica and president of Ray-Ban. Del Vecchio, who holds a 19% stake in Leone group, may even be in Cannes as a part of the “Paper Tiger” delegation.
Different initiatives in numerous phases within the Leone Movie Group pipeline:
“Bad Boy’s Girl”: The movie adaptation of the eponymous saga written by Blair Holde, which boasts greater than 200 million readers on the Wattpad platform, is now in put up. Produced by Leone’s Lotus Manufacturing shingle and Diamond Movies, its directed by Spain’s Marçal Forés and stars Michelle Moriarty, Harrison Aston, Jordan Elsass and Lashay Anderson. Leone will likely be purchasing it in Cannes.
“Days of Abandonment”: As beforehand introduced, Penelope Cruz is about to star on this English-language adaptation of Italian creator Elena Ferrante’s novel of the identical identify, though Isabel Coixet is now not connected to direct. One other director is being searched for this movie, which is eying an early 2027 begin of taking pictures date.
“Madly” English-language remake: An English-language remake of Italian director Paolo Genovese’s idea comedy “Madly” is in early phases. “Madly” — which is titled “FolleMente” in Italy — depicts a primary date between a person and a lady in Rome and options all of the voices that dwell of their brains which oscillate between embarrassment and laughter, every performed by a distinct actor. It scored greater than $20 million on the Italian field workplace.
