James Franco will play a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in post-World War II Naples, where he fathers a child, in gritty Italian drama “Hey Joe.” Directed by Claudio Giovannesi, the film is now shooting in the southern port city.
Franco, who has recently been taking roles outside the U.S. following a now-settled 2019 lawsuit alleging that he sexually exploited young women who took his acting class, will be speaking both English and Italian to play the lead in “Hey Joe,” said producer Carlo Degli Esposti, head of Italy’s prominent Palomar shingle. Degli Esposti added that Palomar got a waiver from SAG-AFTRA for Franco to work on the film “since we are an indie production.”
In “Hey Joe,” Franco plays Dean Barry, an American sailor who in 1944, at age 23, disembarks in Naples which has been destroyed by bombing. He falls in love with a young, very poor, local woman named Lucia.
Franco, who has recently been taking roles outside the U.S. following a now-settled 2019 lawsuit alleging that he sexually exploited young women who took his acting class, will be speaking both English and Italian to play the lead in “Hey Joe,” said producer Carlo Degli Esposti, head of Italy’s prominent Palomar shingle. Degli Esposti added that Palomar got a waiver from SAG-AFTRA for Franco to work on the film “since we are an indie production.”
In “Hey Joe,” Franco plays Dean Barry, an American sailor who in 1944, at age 23, disembarks in Naples which has been destroyed by bombing. He falls in love with a young, very poor, local woman named Lucia.
- 10/19/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Starz Picks Up ‘Death & Nightingales’
Starz has acquired BBC period drama Death And Nightingales, which features The Americans actor Matthew Rhys and Fifty Shades of Grey’s Jamie Dornan. The three-part drama, which is based on Eugene McCable’s modern Irish classic, is written by The Fall creator Allan Cubitt and is produced by Imaginarium Productions and Soho Moon. Premiering on May 16 in the U.S., the series is a story of love, betrayal, deception, and revenge, set in the haunting countryside of Fermanagh in 1885. Red Arrow Studios International is overseeing global sales. Other buyers include HBO Europe, Sky Network Television (New Zealand), Yes (Israel), and DirecTV (Latin American markets excluding Brazil). Death And Nightingales first premiered on BBC Two in 2018.
Sky Italia Chiefs Exit
Sky Italia’s managing director Maximo Ibarra and programming chief Nicola Maccanico are leaving the Comcast-owned broadcaster. Ibarra’s...
Starz has acquired BBC period drama Death And Nightingales, which features The Americans actor Matthew Rhys and Fifty Shades of Grey’s Jamie Dornan. The three-part drama, which is based on Eugene McCable’s modern Irish classic, is written by The Fall creator Allan Cubitt and is produced by Imaginarium Productions and Soho Moon. Premiering on May 16 in the U.S., the series is a story of love, betrayal, deception, and revenge, set in the haunting countryside of Fermanagh in 1885. Red Arrow Studios International is overseeing global sales. Other buyers include HBO Europe, Sky Network Television (New Zealand), Yes (Israel), and DirecTV (Latin American markets excluding Brazil). Death And Nightingales first premiered on BBC Two in 2018.
Sky Italia Chiefs Exit
Sky Italia’s managing director Maximo Ibarra and programming chief Nicola Maccanico are leaving the Comcast-owned broadcaster. Ibarra’s...
- 4/21/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
ITV Studios has announced new international sales on “Romulus,” the TV series shot in Archaic Latin that takes its cue from the mythical tale of twins Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome. The drama is world premiering Friday at the Rome Film Festival.
The hotly anticipated skein, which is a Sky original in Italy, has been acquired for Germany by Deutsche Telekom for play on its MagentaTV streaming service, and by More TV Russia for Russia and all Cis territories. It has also been licensed by Greece’s Cosmote, which is the country’s top telco.
ITV Studios previously sold the innovative Rome origin show to HBO Europe for a slew of territories comprising all of the Nordics and Central Europe, as well as Spain, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking territories such as Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique.
Talks are also underway with broadcasters in the U.S. and U.K. where Sky U.
The hotly anticipated skein, which is a Sky original in Italy, has been acquired for Germany by Deutsche Telekom for play on its MagentaTV streaming service, and by More TV Russia for Russia and all Cis territories. It has also been licensed by Greece’s Cosmote, which is the country’s top telco.
ITV Studios previously sold the innovative Rome origin show to HBO Europe for a slew of territories comprising all of the Nordics and Central Europe, as well as Spain, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking territories such as Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique.
Talks are also underway with broadcasters in the U.S. and U.K. where Sky U.
- 10/21/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The first two episodes of Sky’s Euro series Romulus, about the events that led to the foundation of Rome, will launch at the Rome Film Festival next month. Produced by Sky, Cattleya and Groenlandia, the show comes from director Matteo Rovere, marking his TV debut, and will star Andrea Arcangeli, Marianna Fontana and Francesco Di Napoli. The ten episodes were filmed in archaic Latin by Rovere alongside Michele Alhaique ed Enrico Maria Artale. Set eight centuries before Christ, the series charts an archaic and brutal world where the tribes of the Lega Latina have lived for years under the leadership of the king of Alba, but drought and famine are threatening peace and the life of the cities. ITV Studios is handling international sales. The show will debut in Italy on Sky.
A joint New York-based office for German Films and the Goethe-Institut will open from October 1 with €50,000 in support from the German government.
A joint New York-based office for German Films and the Goethe-Institut will open from October 1 with €50,000 in support from the German government.
- 9/29/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
This week’s new release should satisfy a couple of interests to those still in “self-isolation”. First, it’s set in another country, so it’s a trip overseas, at least vicariously. The backdrop is Italy, specifically Naples which is one of the big tourist destinations (perhaps Steve and Rob had a nice bowl of pasta there during one of their movie “trips”). And second, for those not big on the scenery, it’s a crime profile. But it’s not a big sprawling epic like The Irishman and last February’s The Traitor. The story’s spread out over a few months in the last couple of years. Oh, and the other big, big difference: the mobsters at the center of the tale are younger, by several decades. Teenagers really, several of them couldn’t drive here legally. Oh but their crimes are much bigger than any traffic violations.
- 7/14/2020
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Sky Italia and Gomorrah producer Cattleya have unveiled the first look at their forthcoming big-budget drama Romulus, the founder and first king of Rome, which is being produced in archaic Latin.
The ITV-owned producer is producing the ten-part series, which was created by Matteo Rovere, who directed The First King feature. It marks Rovere’s television debut. The ten-part series is co-produced by Rovere’s Groenlandia and filming started in Rome last month.
It stars Andrea Arcangeli (Trust), Marianna Fontana (Indivisible) and Francesco Di Napoli (Piranhas) with Rovere directing alongside Michele Alhaique and Enrico Maria Artale. It is written by Rovere, Filippo Gravino (The First King) and Guido Iuculano (A Quiet Life).
The series is set in eighth century B.C., in a primitive and brutal world in which man’s fate is decided by the merciless power of nature and the gods. It is the story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus,...
The ITV-owned producer is producing the ten-part series, which was created by Matteo Rovere, who directed The First King feature. It marks Rovere’s television debut. The ten-part series is co-produced by Rovere’s Groenlandia and filming started in Rome last month.
It stars Andrea Arcangeli (Trust), Marianna Fontana (Indivisible) and Francesco Di Napoli (Piranhas) with Rovere directing alongside Michele Alhaique and Enrico Maria Artale. It is written by Rovere, Filippo Gravino (The First King) and Guido Iuculano (A Quiet Life).
The series is set in eighth century B.C., in a primitive and brutal world in which man’s fate is decided by the merciless power of nature and the gods. It is the story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus,...
- 7/15/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
"There are only three guys running the hood. We could take over." Music Box Films has unveiled an official Us trailer for an Italian mob drama titled Piranhas, originally titled La paranza dei bambini in Italian. This first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, where it won a Silver Bear award for Best Screenplay; it also played at the Seattle, Shanghai, Sydney, & Chicago Critics Film Festivals this year. As the older mobsters in Naples get locked away, the gangsters become younger and younger. Piranhas is about a gang of teenage boys who stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and Ak-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding. Adapted from Gomorrah writer Roberto Saviano's novel "The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses of Naples". Starring Francesco Di Napoli, Viviana Aprea, Mattia Piano Del Balzo, Ciro Vecchione, Ciro Pellecchia, and Ar Tem. This is being called both...
- 7/11/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Claudio Giovannesi with Anne-Katrin Titze on Francesco Di Napoli's Nicola in Piranhas (La Paranza Dei Bambini): "After this movie I met Giorgio Armani because Giorgio Armani watched the movie and fell in love with the main character." Photo: Lilia Blouin
Claudio Giovannesi's Piranhas (La Paranza Dei Bambini), co-written with Roberto Saviano (author of The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses Of Naples) and Maurizio Braucchi, stars Francesco Di Napoli with Luca Nacarlo, Viviana Aprea, Ar Tem, Ciro Vecchione, Alfredo Turitto, Pasquale Marotta, Ciro Pellechia, Carmine Pizzo, and Mattia Piano Del Balzo. As the director states, it "is a movie on adolescents who make a choice of a life of crime, but it starts out as a game. And then this game ends up evolving into a war."
Claudio Giovannesi on Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli) with Letizia (Viviana Aprea) in Piranhas: "It is a film in which the age of the protagonists is a protagonist itself.
Claudio Giovannesi's Piranhas (La Paranza Dei Bambini), co-written with Roberto Saviano (author of The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses Of Naples) and Maurizio Braucchi, stars Francesco Di Napoli with Luca Nacarlo, Viviana Aprea, Ar Tem, Ciro Vecchione, Alfredo Turitto, Pasquale Marotta, Ciro Pellechia, Carmine Pizzo, and Mattia Piano Del Balzo. As the director states, it "is a movie on adolescents who make a choice of a life of crime, but it starts out as a game. And then this game ends up evolving into a war."
Claudio Giovannesi on Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli) with Letizia (Viviana Aprea) in Piranhas: "It is a film in which the age of the protagonists is a protagonist itself.
- 7/11/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
With Netflix (hopefully) releasing “The Irishman” at the end of this year, it’s natural for moviegoers to have gangsters on the mind. But if you can’t wait five months for a “Goodfellas”-inspired movie, “Piranhas” has you covered. Claudio Giovannesi’s latest, a crime story set in the mean streets of Naples, seeks to chart new territory without hiding its debt to classic mob cinema.
The official synopsis from Music Box Films says the film “follows fifteen year-old Nicola (newcomer Francesco Di Napoli) who lives with his mother and younger brother in the Sanità neighborhood of Naples, a place that has been controlled by the Camorra mafia for centuries. Dreaming of a life lush with designer clothing and elite nightclub bottle service, Nicola and his group of friends begin selling drugs, an entryway into the violent, power-hungry world of crime that begins to threaten their innocence, relationships, and safety of their families.
The official synopsis from Music Box Films says the film “follows fifteen year-old Nicola (newcomer Francesco Di Napoli) who lives with his mother and younger brother in the Sanità neighborhood of Naples, a place that has been controlled by the Camorra mafia for centuries. Dreaming of a life lush with designer clothing and elite nightclub bottle service, Nicola and his group of friends begin selling drugs, an entryway into the violent, power-hungry world of crime that begins to threaten their innocence, relationships, and safety of their families.
- 7/10/2019
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Nicola is a decent kid in a dirty world. A 15-year-old boy who’s mired in the usual mess of pubescent crises — raging hormones, idiot friends, hostile bullies — Nicola stands out for the attention that he still manages to afford his single mom and younger brother; whether motivated by love or by the unfulfilled masculinity that his absent father left behind, there’s no denying that he’s motivated. Alas, that’s kind of the problem. In most places, it might be a good thing for a teenager to be a real go-getter with ambition to burn and a savvy head for business. In the corrupt heart of Naples, which 2008’s “Gomorrah” effectively minted as the new epicenter of mafia cinema, those same traits are more like a death sentence.
A familiar but arrestingly visceral crime story with a coming-of-age twist, Claudio Giovannesi’s “Piranhas” has an unusual relationship with its own predictability.
A familiar but arrestingly visceral crime story with a coming-of-age twist, Claudio Giovannesi’s “Piranhas” has an unusual relationship with its own predictability.
- 6/11/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Sky is building its slate of originals in Italy with “Romulus,” a 10-part series about the origin of Rome from Cattleya, the Italian producer that makes “Gomorrah.” Non-English-language drama is in vogue, but “Romulus” takes that a step further by having the characters speak in archaic Latin.
Matteo Rovere, known for his movie work, is attached to direct his first TV series. His shingle, Groenlandia, will co-produce. “‘Romulus’ is a story about feelings, war, brotherhood, courage and fear,” he said. “It is a great, epic fresco, a highly realistic reconstruction of the events that led to the foundation of Rome. But above all it is an investigation into the origins and the profound meaning of power in the West: a journey into an archaic and frightening world, where everything is sacred and people feel the mysterious and hostile presence of the gods everywhere.”
Rovere is familiar with the subject matter,...
Matteo Rovere, known for his movie work, is attached to direct his first TV series. His shingle, Groenlandia, will co-produce. “‘Romulus’ is a story about feelings, war, brotherhood, courage and fear,” he said. “It is a great, epic fresco, a highly realistic reconstruction of the events that led to the foundation of Rome. But above all it is an investigation into the origins and the profound meaning of power in the West: a journey into an archaic and frightening world, where everything is sacred and people feel the mysterious and hostile presence of the gods everywhere.”
Rovere is familiar with the subject matter,...
- 5/29/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
Gomorrah producer Cattleya is making a TV drama about Romulus, the founder and first king of Rome, in archaic Latin for Sky Italia.
The ITV-owned producer is producing Romulus, created by Matteo Rovere, who directed The First King feature. It marks Rovere’s television debut. The ten-part series is co-produced by Rovere’s Groenlandia and will start filming in Rome in early June.
It will star Andrea Arcangeli (Trust), Marianna Fontana (Indivisible) and Francesco Di Napoli (Piranhas) with Rovere directing alongside Michele Alhaique and Enrico Maria Artale. It is written by Rovere, Filippo Gravino (The First King) and Guido Iuculano (A Quiet Life).
The series is set in eighth century B.C., in a primitive and brutal world in which man’s fate is decided by the merciless power of nature and the gods. It is the story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus, as seen through the...
The ITV-owned producer is producing Romulus, created by Matteo Rovere, who directed The First King feature. It marks Rovere’s television debut. The ten-part series is co-produced by Rovere’s Groenlandia and will start filming in Rome in early June.
It will star Andrea Arcangeli (Trust), Marianna Fontana (Indivisible) and Francesco Di Napoli (Piranhas) with Rovere directing alongside Michele Alhaique and Enrico Maria Artale. It is written by Rovere, Filippo Gravino (The First King) and Guido Iuculano (A Quiet Life).
The series is set in eighth century B.C., in a primitive and brutal world in which man’s fate is decided by the merciless power of nature and the gods. It is the story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus, as seen through the...
- 5/29/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, the Library of Congress honors Ken Burns, Anthony Anderson is hosting the NAACP Image Awards, Berlin winner “Piranhas” gets distribution and “The Biggest Little Farm” gets school screenings.
Burns Award
The Library of Congress, the Better Angels Society and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation will present an annual documentary award named after Ken Burns.
The award, which will be presented each fall at a gala at the Library of Congress, will recognize a filmmaker whose documentary uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on some aspect of American history. The winner will receive a $200,000 finishing grant to help with the final production of the film.
“I’ve been very fortunate to spend my career focused on our country’s history,” said Burns. “While each film is different, they all ask the same question about who we are as a people.
Burns Award
The Library of Congress, the Better Angels Society and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation will present an annual documentary award named after Ken Burns.
The award, which will be presented each fall at a gala at the Library of Congress, will recognize a filmmaker whose documentary uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on some aspect of American history. The winner will receive a $200,000 finishing grant to help with the final production of the film.
“I’ve been very fortunate to spend my career focused on our country’s history,” said Burns. “While each film is different, they all ask the same question about who we are as a people.
- 3/6/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to Piranhas, the film adaptation of Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano’s bestseller. The pic, which just won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, will hit U.S. theaters later this year ahead of a digital bow.
The Claudio Giovanessi-directed film centers on 15-year-old Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli) and his group of friends as they descend from naïve, designer clothes-wearing and party-loving teenagers into violent and power-hungry gangsters groomed by members of the Neapolitan mafia. Giovanessi, Saviano and Maurizio Braucci wrote the script. Palomar Film and Vision Distribution are producers.
“Director Claudio Giovannesi and novelist Roberto Saviano have delivered a timely look at how youth and social media intersect with one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy and crafted an underworld epic to stand beside Gomorrah,” Music Box Films president William Schopf said. “We...
The Claudio Giovanessi-directed film centers on 15-year-old Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli) and his group of friends as they descend from naïve, designer clothes-wearing and party-loving teenagers into violent and power-hungry gangsters groomed by members of the Neapolitan mafia. Giovanessi, Saviano and Maurizio Braucci wrote the script. Palomar Film and Vision Distribution are producers.
“Director Claudio Giovannesi and novelist Roberto Saviano have delivered a timely look at how youth and social media intersect with one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy and crafted an underworld epic to stand beside Gomorrah,” Music Box Films president William Schopf said. “We...
- 3/5/2019
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
The kids roaming around the streets of Naples in Claudio Giovannesi’s Piranhas snort cocaine, hang out with hookers, and fire assault weapons. They are the barely teenage mobsters the city’s Camorra clans have recruited with promises of quick cash and opulent mansions, their interiors caught somewhere between the belittling sumptuousness of Xanadu and the revolting kitsch of a Trump Tower. Stunted adolescents propelled into adulthood at the speed of light, they inhabit a liminal world where ultra-violence teems with childlike wonder, the loss of innocence immortalized one gun-wielding selfie at a time.
Based on Naples-born Roberto Saviano’s best-selling novel La Paranza Dei Bambini Giovannesi’s Piranhas offers a far tamer ethnography of the Neapolitan underworld than the disturbing sociological study Matteo Garrone’s 2008 Gomorrah had pierced out of Saviano’s breakthrough literary debut of the same name. Anyone approaching Giovannesi’s fourth feature hoping to find the same fast-paced,...
Based on Naples-born Roberto Saviano’s best-selling novel La Paranza Dei Bambini Giovannesi’s Piranhas offers a far tamer ethnography of the Neapolitan underworld than the disturbing sociological study Matteo Garrone’s 2008 Gomorrah had pierced out of Saviano’s breakthrough literary debut of the same name. Anyone approaching Giovannesi’s fourth feature hoping to find the same fast-paced,...
- 2/21/2019
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
At the kingpin table on the mezzanine level of a Neapolitan nightclub, Nicola (Francesco di Napoli) snorts a line of coke and slings his arm around Letizia (Viviana Aprea) while Tyson (Ar Tem) pops a bottle of champagne. Over the pulsing music, the whole jostling crew laughs down at the 500€-a-table territory below, noting from their Godlike perch which neighborhood gangs are looking up at them with animosity, which with envy. Claudio Giovannesi’s “Piranhas” begins a few short weeks before this scene, when Nicola’s penniless gang gets turned away from places like this, but look, now he’s made it! He is 15 years old.
Based on the book “La Paranza dei Bambini” (“The Children’s Parade”) by “Gomorrah” writer Roberto Saviano who co-wrote the screenplay, “Piranhas” is both helped and hamstrung by its central, chilling observation: The children of central Naples are inducted into the mob lifestyle, its tribalism,...
Based on the book “La Paranza dei Bambini” (“The Children’s Parade”) by “Gomorrah” writer Roberto Saviano who co-wrote the screenplay, “Piranhas” is both helped and hamstrung by its central, chilling observation: The children of central Naples are inducted into the mob lifestyle, its tribalism,...
- 2/12/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
In Naples, the plague of “baby gangs” is old news. Violent kids from the slums as young as ten go cruising for fights and taunt the police, knowing they’re too young to be arrested. They presumably graduate to become teenage “paranza,” mob slang for an armed group in the service of the Camorra.
Piranhas (La paranza dei bambini), directed by Claudio Giovannesi, charts the descent into organized crime of a naïve group of 15-year-old pals led by the inexperienced but cocksure Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli). Behind his clean-cut face, neat haircut and designer clothes lies ...
Piranhas (La paranza dei bambini), directed by Claudio Giovannesi, charts the descent into organized crime of a naïve group of 15-year-old pals led by the inexperienced but cocksure Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli). Behind his clean-cut face, neat haircut and designer clothes lies ...
- 2/12/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
In Naples, the plague of “baby gangs” is old news. Violent kids from the slums as young as ten go cruising for fights and taunt the police, knowing they’re too young to be arrested. They presumably graduate to become teenage “paranza,” mob slang for an armed group in the service of the Camorra.
Piranhas (La paranza dei bambini), directed by Claudio Giovannesi, charts the descent into organized crime of a naïve group of 15-year-old pals led by the inexperienced but cocksure Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli). Behind his clean-cut face, neat haircut and designer clothes lies ...
Piranhas (La paranza dei bambini), directed by Claudio Giovannesi, charts the descent into organized crime of a naïve group of 15-year-old pals led by the inexperienced but cocksure Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli). Behind his clean-cut face, neat haircut and designer clothes lies ...
- 2/12/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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