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Few stories have influenced the canon of Western storytelling more than Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” but its author has never received his own moment in the cinematic spotlight. That changes this fall with Alejandro Amenábar’s new film “The Captive,” which follows Cervantes as a 28-year-old sailor in the Spanish Navy who discovers his love of storytelling while confined as a prisoner of war. The film is set to have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and IndieWire can exclusively reveal its new trailer.

An official synopsis for the film reads: “1575 — Algiers, Miguel de Cervantes (Julio Peña), a wounded 28-year-old Spanish Navy soldier, is held prisoner by Ottoman corsairs. A cruel death awaits him should his countrymen fail to pay his ransom soon; but within the confines of his cell, Cervantes discovers a surprising refuge — the art of storytelling. Crafted from resilience and hope, his stories enthrall his fellow captives,...

Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to Heads or Tails?, a Western starring John C. Reilly as Buffalo Bill, which they’ve slated for release in theaters this year, following its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Also starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Alessandro Borghi, the film takes place after a deadly rodeo and a stolen kiss, as Rosa and her cowboy lover flee across the Italian wilderness, pursued by Buffalo Bill and the story he refuses to rewrite.

Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis (The Tale of King Crab) are the pic’s directors. It’s produced by Tommaso Bertani and Alex C. Lo.

“Heads Or Tails? is highly original and our favorite film from Cannes this year,” said Samuel Goldwyn CEO Ben Feingold. “We are excited to bring the film to theaters and other platforms after its release in Italy later this year.

A Amenábar se suman Laxe, Coixet y Touzani.

© TIFF

El Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto, que celebra su 50.ª edición del 4 al 14 de septiembre, ha anunciado nuevos títulos de su programación. Por ahora, el certamen canadiense ha desvelado únicamente las selecciones Galas, Proyecciones Especiales y la competitiva Platform. España no estará presente en Galas ni en Platform, pero sí logra una presencia significativa en la sección Special Presentations, donde se han confirmado cuatro títulos con participación española. No se descarta que se sumen más en los próximos días, pero, por ahora, son cuatro las películas patrias confirmadas.

A la ya anunciada hace tiempo El cautivo, de Alejandro Amenábar, que tendrá su estreno mundial en el certamen canadiense, se suman Tres adioses, de Isabel Coixet; Sirat, de Oliver Laxe, tras su triunfo en la Croisette; y la coproducción Calle Málaga, que llegará tras su estreno en Venecia.

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En la nueva película del hispano-chileno, Julio Peña da vida al joven Cervantes. © Disney

¡Grandes noticias! La película El cautivo, de Alejandro Amenábar (Los otros), tendrá su estreno mundial en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto (TIFF), que se celebra del 4 al 14 de septiembre, dentro de la sección Special Presentations. No es la primera vez del cineasta hispano-chileno en el certamen canadiense: Mar adentro y Mientras dure la guerra se presentaron en la misma sección.

El cautivo se sitúa en el año 1575 cuando el joven Miguel de Cervantes, herido en combate naval, es capturado en alta mar por corsarios argelinos a su regreso a España. Consciente de que le espera una muerte cruel en Argel si no paga pronto su rescate, Miguel descubre un refugio inesperado en su pasión por contar historias. Sus fascinantes relatos devuelven la esperanza a sus compañeros de prisión y acaban atrayendo la atención de Hassan,...

Estreno en cines en septiembre. © Disney

Ya tenemos el primer tráiler y póster de la película El cautivo, de Alejandro Amenábar.

El cautivo se sitúa en el año 1575 cuando el joven Miguel de Cervantes, herido en combate naval, es capturado en alta mar por corsarios argelinos a su regreso a España. Consciente de que le espera una muerte cruel en Argel si no paga pronto su rescate, Miguel descubre un refugio inesperado en su pasión por contar historias. Sus fascinantes relatos devuelven la esperanza a sus compañeros de prisión y acaban atrayendo la atención de Hassan, el misterioso y temido Bajá de Argel, con quien empieza a desarrollar una extraña afinidad. A medida que crece el conflicto entre sus compañeros de prisión, Miguel, impulsado por su inquebrantable optimismo, comienza a idear un audaz plan de fuga.

La película está protagonizada por Julio Peña (Berlín) y Alessandro Borghi (Las ocho montañas...

The Wild West looks tame beside the lawless, senseless Continental plains and sierras of “Heads or Tails?,” an enjoyably off-kilter Euro-western that honors the stylistic and structural traditions of the genre while occupying its own reality entirely. The second feature from Italian directing duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis features a rogue outlaw cowboy, a gutsy, pistol-toting widow and Buffalo Bill Cody himself — all variously on the loose in a suitably parched stretch of northern Italy. But if those sound like standard ingredients for an old-school oater, or even a Leone-era spaghetti joint, this sui generis item takes a turn for the eccentric even before it pivots into outright surrealism.

One of the more irreverent titles at this year’s Cannes festival — where it premiered in the Un Certain Regard strand — “Heads or Tails?” is looser and loopier than de Righi and Zoppis’ cultish 2021 festival hit “The Tale of King Crab,...

It was all about Wild West myths and classy Negronis as Rai Cinema celebrated “Heads or Tails?” in Cannes on Thursday.

Presented in Un Certain Regard and directed by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, the surreal western follows Rosa (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), who, trapped in an unhappy marriage, flees with daredevil Santino (Alessandro Borghi). Many go after them, including Buffalo Bill (John C. Reilly).

“It’s a very original film and I think it will have a great impact. Not only in Italy, but in the world. It touches upon themes that are universal. There’s love, power and a little bit of politics,” CEO of Rai Cinema Paolo del Brocco told Variety at the event.

“It’s difficult to invent new things in cinema, but we hope more original films will come [in the future]. When we see a new idea, we invest a lot in it. We want it to be done well.

The scent of sawdust and gunpowder, a phantom limb of the American frontier, drifts across the ancient stones of Italy. Here, in the twilight of the 19th century, Buffalo Bill Cody, that bewhiskered impresario of self-mythology, has imported his Wild West spectacle – a theatre of conquest played out for the amusement of a European gentry.

The performance, however, is merely a prelude, a gaudy curtain rising on a drama far less rehearsed. A wager, born of bravado and perhaps the weariness of an old world confronting a new, pits American bravura against local sinew. Santino, an Italian buttero, a man of the earth, triumphs, and in this small victory, a crack appears in the veneer of civility. A nobleman, Ercole Rupè, lies slain, and his young French widow, Rosa, her hands stained with an irrevocable act, flees into the ochre landscape.

With her rides Santino, now a cipher – murderer, kidnapper,...

The Italian-u.S. co-production Heads or Tails? starts with a re-enactment of an actual historical event: Buffalo Bill (played here by John C. Reilly) and his traveling rodeo show’s early-20th-century visit to Italy. But this freewheeling neo-anti-quasi-western, with its fictional yarn about young lovers (Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Alessandro Borghi) on the run from bounty hunters who encounter revolutionaries and train robbers, eventually goes well beyond printing the legend and wanders off into the realms of magical realism.

The project — directed by Matteo Zoppis and Alessio Rigo de Righi (whose previous effort was The Tale of King Crab) — is nothing if not ambitious, even if its big swings don’t always connect. Nevertheless, there’s a freshness in seeing this kind of horse opera set in Europe itself, as opposed to having southerly locations on the continent pretending to be American landscapes, like they did back in the spaghetti...

I could name few living filmmakers better equipped for the Western than Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis. The duo behind The Tale of King Crab––a film I revere like a sacred relic––have created their own niche in contemporary Italian magical realism, somewhere adjacent to Alice Rohrwacher and Pietro Marcello while very much its own thing. Their latest is called Heads or Tails and it’s another of the filmmakers’ ethereal campfire stories. If perhaps not the fullest realization of their Western potential, it will certainly do until that gets here.

Heads or Tails concerns Rosa (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), the intrepid wife of a wealthy and domineering landowner. It begins at the rodeo, where a kind of Vegas-era Buffalo Bill has come to town to tour his show. While charming the local dignitaries, he proposes a competition between his American riders and the local Italians, with the instruction to “lasso,...

Roughly a year after its launch, Italian state broadcaster Rai’s new sales unit for film is at Cannes with its first full-fledged slate headlined by surreal Western “Heads or Tails” starring John C. Reilly as Buffalo Bill during his stay in Italy that is launching in Un Certain Regard.

The Rai Cinema International Distribution slate also includes a new under-the-radar doc by prominent Russian documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky, known for “Gunda” and “Aquarela.” Kossakovsky is now making another ecology-themed doc titled “Tears for Firs” in collaboration with Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso, a pioneer in the plant neurobiology movement who has written several best-selling books including “Tree Stories.” “It’s about the entire life cycle of trees and the correlation between plant life and the life of our planet,” said Rai Cinema chief Paolo Del Brocco.

“Tears for First” is being produced by Rome-based Be Water Film with Rai Cinema.

Paul Mescal came to seduce Cannes, and it appears to be working.

The red-hot young star of The History of Sound received a warm welcome from the festival audience for the world premiere of Oliver Hermanus’ new film, in competition, in Cannes on Wednesday night.

Hermanus and Mescal walked the red-carpet while co-star Josh O’Conner didn’t make it to the Croisette for the History of Sound debut but is expected Friday for the premiere of Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, in which he also stars.

Also walking the History of Sound carpet were castmembers Raphael Sbarge, Molly Price, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning and Peter Mark Kendall as well as Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez; John C. Reilly and Italian actor Alessandro Borghi, here with the neo-Western Heads or Tails? playing in Un Certain Regard; and Julian Assange, in town for the premiere of The 6 Billion Dollar Man,...

All’s fair in love, war, and the flip of a coin. Italian Western “Heads or Tails?” turns back time to capture the famed “Wild West Show,” hosted by Buffalo Bill (née William F. Cody), which brought the myth of the American frontier abroad. In a twist of divine casting, John C. Reilly plays the iconic Buffalo Bill. The feature premieres at Cannes this year in the Un Certain Regard section as a sales title; this is Reilly’s recent return to the festival, as the star was previously the president of the Un Certain Regard jury for the 76th edition in 2023. Watch an exclusive clip in the video above.

Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis co-direct “Heads or Tails?,” which centers on how Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show changes the perspective of Italian woman Rosa, who is trapped in a stifling marriage to a powerful and violent landowner.

John C. Reilly stars as Buffalo Bill in the surreal westerns- and heroes-deconstructing parable Heads or Tails? (Testa o croce?), the new feature from Italian writers-directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis (The Tale of King Crab), which world premieres in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.

French-Finnish actress Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Red Island, The Crime Is Mine) and Italian actor Alessandro Borghi (Supersex, The Eight Mountains) lead the cast of the movie that dissects such themes as fame, myths, and storytelling.

The story, which the creator duo wrote with Carlo Salsa, begins with a documented 1890 Italy trip by frontiersman Buffalo Bill to bring his popular “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” to European audiences, and with it, the legend of U.S. frontier life.

At the show, Rosa (Tereszkiewicz), the young wife of a nobleman, falls in love with Santino (Borghi), an Italian cowboy, or buttero, who wins a contest...

Italian directorial duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, who made a splash at Cannes in 2022 with “The Tale of King Crab,” are back with “Heads or Tails,” a surreal Western starring John C. Reilly inspired by a true event that took place during Buffalo Bill’s stay in Italy. The film unspools in Un Certain Regard.

Italian cowboys, hailing from the central Italian plains of northern Lazio up through the coastal Italian region of Maremma into southern Tuscany and known as “butteri,” have a long-standing connection to Buffalo Bill and the history of America’s Wild West.

“We’ve known this story since we were kids,” said Zoppis. “There was a rodeo between the American cowboys and the Italian butteri from Cisterna Latina, just south of Rome, where we actually shot the film. And legend has it that the Italians won, though there are different versions of the outcome.

This year’s Italian presence at Cannes – one entry in competition by veteran auteur Mario Martone and two by young directors that landed slots in Un Certain Regard – accurately reflects the current state of Cinema Italiano.

Broadly speaking, following a protracted growth spurt, there has been a slowdown in production activity caused by the fact that the government has been dithering with modifications on tax incentives for local film and TV productions, which has stalled the greenlight process, especially for bigger-budget Italian movies.

But even though getting films financed has gotten tougher, a new generation of directors is bubbling under, alongside well-known names such as Paolo Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Alice Rohrwacher and Nanni Moretti.

“I have the impression that once again we are seeing young [Italian] directors emerging and this is formidable,” Thierry Fremaux noted while announcing the lineup. The Cannes boss went on to add that “Italy is historically a...

It’s the most exciting time of the year for a cinephile: the Cannes Film Festival is set to kick off next week, running May 13th-25th. Ahead of festivities we’ve rounded up what we’re most looking forward to, and while we’re sure many surprises await, per every year, one will find twenty films that should be on your radar. Check out our picks below and be sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest updates from the festival.

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

Winning the Palme d’Or for your previous film is a pretty high bar to clear for your next. It’s also among the best problems any filmmaker could have. Four years after Spike Lee’s jury handed the coveted prize to the first female filmmaker in Cannes history––and one of the most violent films to ever take home a Palme––maverick...

Rocco Siffredi, the retired global porn star whose life story inspired Netflix’s recent series “Supersex,” is to star in “Blue,” an Italian drama set in the erotic social media world.

Shooting is underway in Italy’s central Marche region on the film, which according to promotional materials revolves around a young female student named Luce contending with “tough choices” as she navigates the deceptive world of erotic websites and social media. The indie film is directed by first-timer Eleonora Puglia.

Italy’s PiperFilm is handling international sales and will release “Blue” in Italy.

Alongside Siffredi, the “Blue” cast also includes young Italian actresses Alexia Cozzi — who plays Luce — and Shaheen Barletta (“Prisma”). Siffredi plays Luce’s father.

“Blue” is a co-production between Italy’s Camaleo Film and Poland’s Agreswyna Banda, with support from the Marche Film Commission and Lazio Cinema International.

Siffredi, who has made roughly 1,400 hardcore films,...

Estreno en cines este otoño. © Disney

Ya tenemos primer tráiler de la película El cautivo, de Alejandro Amenábar.

El cautivo se sitúa en el año 1575 cuando el joven Miguel de Cervantes, herido en combate naval, es capturado en alta mar por corsarios argelinos a su regreso a España. Consciente de que le espera una muerte cruel en Argel si no paga pronto su rescate, Miguel descubre un refugio inesperado en su pasión por contar historias. Sus fascinantes relatos devuelven la esperanza a sus compañeros de prisión y acaban atrayendo la atención de Hassan, el misterioso y temido Bajá de Argel, con quien empieza a desarrollar una extraña afinidad. A medida que crece el conflicto entre sus compañeros de prisión, Miguel, impulsado por su inquebrantable optimismo, comienza a idear un audaz plan de fuga.

La película está protagonizada por Julio Peña (Berlín) y Alessandro Borghi (Las ocho montañas) junto a Miguel Rellán...

The teaser has been debuted for “The Captive,” the origin story of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the novel “Don Quixote.” The historical epic is directed by Alejandro Amenábar, who won an Oscar for “The Sea Inside” and was BAFTA nominated for “The Others.” It will be released by Disney in Spain, while Film Constellation is selling other territories.

“The Captive” recently sold to France (Haut et Court), Greece and Cyprus (Filmtrade/Tanweer), Portugal (Nos Audiovisuais), Bulgaria (Pro Films), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery), and Cis (Russian World Vision), with buyers circling in North America.

The film, which shot last year on locations in Valencia, Alicante and Seville in Spain, is now in post-production. It has been dated for release in Spanish theaters on Oct. 17 with Disney.

“The Captive” centers on Cervantes when he was 28 years old as he is taken captive by the Moors in Algiers.

The film is set in 1575. Miguel de Cervantes,...

Film Constellation has revealed the first pre-sales on historical epic “The Captive” by director Alejandro Amenábar, who won an Oscar for “The Sea Inside” and was BAFTA nominated for “The Others.”

“The Captive” sold to France (Haut et Court), Greece and Cyprus (Filmtrade/Tanweer), Portugal (Nos Audiovisuais), Bulgaria (Pro Films), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery), and Cis (Russian World Vision), with buyers circling in North America.

The film, which shot last year on locations in Valencia, Alicante and Seville in Spain, is now in post-production. It has been dated for release in Spanish theaters on Oct. 17 with Disney. Film Constellation is unveiling the first promo for buyers during the European Film Market.

“The Captive” centers on the origin story of a young Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the novel “Don Quixote,” as he was taken captive at the age of 28 by the Moors in Algiers.

The film is set in 1575. Miguel de Cervantes,...

Haut Et Court will release “The Captive,” a new historical movie about the early life of Miguel de Cervantes, in French cinemas. The author of “Don Quixote” ‘s time in jail in North Africa is depicted in the film as a story.

Oscar-winning director Alejandro Amenábar is in charge of a $15 million project, working again with Haut Et Court after their collaboration on “While at War” in 2019.

The film takes place in Algiers in 1575, when Cervantes was 28 years old. It tells the story of the future writer as Ottoman pirates capture him and wait for Spain to send ransom money. When facing the possibility of death, Cervantes feels comforted by sharing stories with other prisoners. He forms a surprising friendship with Hasan, the leader of Algiers.

Spanish actor Julio Peña, famous for his roles in “Berlin” and “Through My Window,” plays a young Cervantes. Italian star Alessandro Borghi, known for “The Eight Mountains” and “Supersex,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSGoodbye, Dragon Inn.The Tamil Film Active Producers Association has filed a writ petition to ban social-media film reviews for the first three days of the theatrical release, claiming financial losses due to negative “review bombing.” Theater owners have likewise proposed banning YouTubers from recording audience reactions in cinema lobbies and parking lots.The McL Cinema in Hong Kong’s Diamond Hill district has shuttered after just two years of operations, the seventh theater in the city to have closed this year. Insiders are bracing for the hit to the local film industry’s reputation and financial stability that could follow. For the past decade, Hollywood executives believed that brief theatrical windows would boost subscriber numbers for their streaming services.

John C. Reilly will soon appear on the big screen as Buffalo Bill in “Heads or Tails?” a surreal Western by Italian directorial duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis (“The Tale of King Crab”). The film is inspired by a true event that took place during Buffalo Bill’s stay in Italy.

Along with the Oscar-nominated U.S. actor – who co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in Jacques Audiard’s Western “The Sisters Brothers” – the top notch “Heads or Tails?” cast also comprises rising French star Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Italy’s Alessandro Borghi, in lead roles, and Argentina’s Peter Lanzani.

Italian cowboys known as “butteri” –– and hailing from the central Italian plains of northern Lazio up through the coastal Italian region of Maremma into southern Tuscany — have a long-standing connection to Buffalo Bill and the history of America’s Wild West.

Buffalo Bill, born William F. Cody, was a...

The 2024 Venice Film Festival kicked off August 28 with the long-awaited Tim Burton-Michael Keaton sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opening the 81th edition, which runs through September 7 on the Lido. Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films.

The lineup for the world’s oldest fest also includes world premieres of Todd Phillips’ Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga pic Joker: Folie à Deux, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Pablo Larrain’s Maria Callas biopic Maria starring Angelina Jolie and new works from the likes of Alfonso Cuarón, Walter Salles, Harmony Korine, Thomas Vinterberg, Brady Corbet, Takeshi Kitano, Claude Lelouch, Errol Morris and others.

Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded its Golden Lion for best film to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, who went on the win the Best Actress Oscar. Isabelle Huppert heads the competition jury this year.

The war is far away, but ever so close, in Battleground (Campo di Battaglia), director Gianni Amelio’s sober study of doctors treating wounded soldiers in Italy as World War I comes to a close. Reducing the conflict to a chamber piece where a trio of former medical students clash over the moral repercussions of their duties, the film raises some interesting and altogether timely questions, but never builds into a powerful drama.

Set almost entirely in a military hospital miles from the front, Battleground fitfully conveys the utter horrors of the Great War, revealing the deep physical and psychological injuries of soldiers arriving on stretchers for treatment. Many of them are in fact so shell-shocked (what we now call Ptsd) that they’re willing to further harm themselves in order to avoid getting sent back to the front, where they are sure to die.

The patients are triaged and...

The battleground in veteran Italian director Gianni Amelio’s atmospheric feature is nominally Europe in the last furlong of the 1914-18 conflict, but the real subject is the war that the Italian government declared on its own people. There are aspects of this all-too-true story, based loosely on Carlo Patriarca’s 2020 novel The Challenge, that will resonate throughout the world, and one might think that post-Vietnam America would be especially receptive to a story about the callous deployment of young, blue-collar men into savage conflicts from which they will almost certainly never return. Amelio’s film, however, while perfect for the local market, isn’t exactly likely to cross over.

The director sets the scene with grim images of bodies piled higher and higher in bleak muddy trenches. The year is 1918, and the armistice is just around the corner, but no one on the front line can possibly know that yet.

1918 in Italy was, a title reminds us, “the year of victory.” Yet the first images in Gianni Amelio’s WWI-set “Battleground” are anything but triumphal: a pile of bloodied soldiers’ bodies glinting wetly in the moonlight; a scavenger pilfering the wallets of the dead; a blanket thrown over a survivor whose gibbering shellshock makes him too abject to look at. The irony is heavy, the way everything in this stultifyingly serious drama is heavy: the skies, the mood, the movements of Luan Amelio Ujkaj’s stately-to-the-point-of-staid camera. The year may have ended in victory but for the Italian soldiers fighting on the frontlines, and for a civilian population numbed by loss and wartime poverty, most of 1918 was spent somewhere closer to despair.

This national demoralization — a feeling rather too well evoked by “Battleground”‘s sluggish pacing and disjointed storytelling — is palpable to Stefano (Gabriele Montesi) and his old friend and...

Venice film festival

Gianni Amelio’s saga is set in 1918, when a pair of Italian doctors take very different approaches to treating the wounded that pass through their wards

Here is the upstanding infantryman of this year’s Venice film festival competition: dogged and decent, doomed to be gunned down by the judges. The festival likes to find room for the occasional domestic production in the main programme, a film that’s happy to ride its home-turf advantage but is otherwise there to make up the numbers. Gianni Amelio’s tense wartime saga is better than most but that counts for little when the battle heats up.

It is 1918, “the Year of Victory”, although in smalltown Italy it feels more akin to defeat. Alessandro Borghi and Gabriel Montesi play Giulio and Stefano, two childhood friends who work as doctors in a military hospital that has become a battleground of its own,...

Principal photography has begun on “The Captive,” a historical epic from “The Others’” Alejandro Amenábar, starring Julio Peña (“Berlin”) as “Don Quixote” author Miguel de Cervantes, a prisoner of Ottoman corsairs, seen in a very first still from the film, alongside Alessandro Borghi (“Suburra”), playing his captor, which has been shared in exclusivity with Variety.

Paris and London-based production, finance and sales house Film Constellation handles worldwide sales. Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture is on board to release the film in Spain in 2025.

If Peña look spruce but worse for wear, little wonder. An origins story of the early flowering of literary genius in Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote” and slice of mean street life “Rinconete and Cortadillo,” this story is wrapped in a historical thriller.

“The Captive,” no ordinary bio, turns on an episode in Cervantes life which was to shape not only his gift for storytelling...

Italian media company Be Water, which is in Cannes for the first time, has announced its full roster of partners and scope of business activities comprising film, documentary and scripted TV production as well as theatrical film distribution, podcasts and live events.

While details of the company’s scripted productions are being kept under wraps, Be Water has announced the lineup of films they are releasing locally theatrically in collaboration with Italy’s Medusa, which is handling booking and billing. Besides “Oh, Canada,” the Be Water lineup includes Nicolas Cage horror-thriller “Longlegs,” directed by Osgood Perkin; Russian-American director Michael Lockshin’s “The Master and Margarita” with Claes Bang and August Diehl; and action family adventure “Jim Button and the Wild 13.”

The Rome-based shingle is operating with what is being described as a holistic approach to content production that is congenial to the digital age, which is certainly a novelty for Italy.

Descubre todos los detalles de la película. © Disney

Comienza el rodaje de “El Cautivo”, la nueva película de Alejandro Amenábar (“Los Otros”) que narra las vivencias y aventuras del joven Miguel de Cervantes durante su cautiverio en Argel.

La película se sitúa en el año 1575 cuando el joven Miguel de Cervantes, herido en combate naval, es capturado en alta mar por corsarios argelinos a su regreso a España. Consciente de que le espera una muerte cruel en Argel si no paga pronto su rescate, Miguel descubre un refugio inesperado en su pasión por contar historias. Sus fascinantes relatos devuelven la esperanza a sus compañeros de prisión y acaban atrayendo la atención de Hassan, el misterioso y temido Bajá de Argel, con quien empieza a desarrollar una extraña afinidad. A medida que crece el conflicto entre sus compañeros de prisión, Miguel, impulsado por su inquebrantable optimismo, comienza a idear un audaz plan de fuga.

On March 6, 2024, Netflix launched “Supersex,” the true story of how Rocco Tano, a simple guy from Ortona, Italy, became Rocco Siffredi, the most famous porn star in the world. The Italian drama series written by Francesca Manieri stars Alessandro Borghi as Rocco and has received rave reviews from critics.

Holding fresh at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, the scandalous series is a critically acclaimed hit with an equally impressive audience score. The ensemble cast includes Jasmine Trinca, Adriano Giannini, Enrico Borello and Vincenzo Nemolato. Read our full review round-up below.

See ‘The Gentlemen’ review round-up: Theo James leads cast of ‘colorful characters’ in Netflix crime drama

Meghan O’Keefe of Decider writes, “’Supersex’ manages to weave together smut and art in intoxicating measure. It could very well be the first foreign language show since ‘Squid Game’ to dominate Netflix’s other programming for weeks at a time. It’s also, thankfully, bringing back the kind of artsy,...

Supersex, which premiered on Netflix on March 6, tells the story of Rocco Siffredi, who came from the small coastal town of Ortona, Italy to become one of the most famous porn stars of all time. Born Rocco Tano in 1963, Siffredi has starred in more than 1,300 pornographic films since beginning his career in 1986 with the soft-core porn film Belle d’Amour.

Supersex, which was created by veteran Italian screenwriter Francesca Manieri and premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, chronicles Siffredi’s life, starting as a child whose world is upended with the death of his brother, only to discover the adult film industry, eventually becoming a global superstar whose first name becomes synonymous with pornography. The winner of 40 Adult Video News Awards (ofter referred to as the “Oscars of porn”), Siffredi, nicknamed the “Italian Stallion,” is portrayed in Supersex by Italian actor Alessandro Borghi, who described the Netflix series as,...

Supersex is here to tell the story behind one of the biggest male pornstars this world has ever seen. The Netflix series follows the life story of popular pornstar Rocco Siffredi, from his childhood in Ortona, Italy to becoming a sexual sensation. Alessandro Borghi stars in the leading role of Siffredi, and he puts everything into his performance to portray a complex and damaged character. If you loved the character-based drama, themes of deep-seated psychological issues, and sex in Supersex then you should check out these similar shows next.

The Naked Director (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

It’s Supersex but Japanese and much more comedic and raunchy. Yes, we are talking about The Naked Director. Based on a novel titled Zenra Kantoku Muranishi Toru Den by Nobuhiro Motohashi, the semi-biographical Netflix series follows the life of Toru Muranishi, a very important figure in the Japanese porn industry. The series delves into...

A steamy teaser for Netflix’s Supersex hit Instagram today with a cheeky one-word caption, “morning!” The clip — posted to promote the seven-episode Italian series inspired by the real life of porn icon Rocco Siffredi — features actor Alessandro Borghi as Siffredi, surrounded by a harem of at least four women.

The shirtless Borghi is focused on one woman as he kisses her, and then wraps his hands around her buttocks and grinds away in a highly suggestive manner. Well, some of Netflix’s Instagram followers found it to be a lot to swallow along with their morning coffee. The comments section quickly filled up with nearly 12,000 comments (and 286,695 likes) as of press time, with many questioning whether such a post was in violation of community guidelines.

The short answer: No. According to Instagram’s community guidelines, the platform encourages users to “respect everyone on Instagram, don’t spam people or post nudity.

Marketing for Netflix's new Italian-language limited series Supersex revolves largely around its frequent, relatively explicit sex scenes. I personally stopped counting around two dozen, and that’s just including penetrative sex involving our lead, not alleyway BJs or brief glimpses of depraved acts in sex clubs. Star Alessandro Borghi estimates that he has “between 40 and 50” such scenes in the show, and he would know — although it says something that he also lost precise count.

Rocco Siffredi’s Thoughts on Netflix’s Supersex ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

When it comes to making shows inspired or based on real-life personalities, no one can beat Netflix. From documentaries to movies and web shows, the streaming platform has brought to life the stories of people who have inspired or shocked everyone with their actions and behaviour. The latest addition to their library is Supersex, an Italian adult drama series inspired by the life of adult star Rocco Siffredi.

The Netflix series was written by Francesca Manieri. Francesca directed the show with Francesca Mazzoleni and Matteo Rovere. The official Netflix synopsis reads, “Inspired by true events, this is the story of how Rocco Siffredi escaped a humble life and emerged as the world’s greatest adult movie star.”

Ever since Supersex was released, netizens haven’t stopped talking about it. The explicit content in it has baffled everyone. However, in an interview last year,...

In the world of Italian cinema, one name has been making waves in recent years – Alessandro Borghi. Born on September 19, 1986, in Rome, Italy, Borghi has emerged as a talented and versatile actor, captivating audiences with his powerful performances. With a height of 1.86 meters (6 ft 1 in) and a charismatic presence, Borghi has become a rising star in the Italian film industry. In this article, we will delve into Borghi’s journey, exploring his filmography, accolades, and the impact he has made on the silver screen.

Growing up in the vibrant city of Rome, Alessandro Borghi developed a passion for acting from a young age. After completing his education, he embarked on his professional acting journey in 2006, with his debut film “Cento giorni a Palermo.” Although his role was small, it marked the beginning of a promising career.

Borghi’s breakthrough came in 2015 when he starred in the critically acclaimed film “Suburra,...

Porn icon Rocco Siffredi claims that after making roughly 1,400 hardcore films — with titles like “The Ass Collector” and “Rocco’s Perfect Slaves” — over the past four decades, he has finally found “the peace of his senses.”

“I could crack a bad joke and say I can’t get it up anymore,” says Siffredi, 59, speaking on a video call from the Budapest office of his Rocco Siffredi Production company, which houses the Siffredi Hard Academy, touted as the world’s first “university of porn.”

“But that’s not the case. Quite the contrary,” the hardworking “Italian Stallion” hastens to add. I’ve asked Siffredi about being — or having notoriously been — a sex addict. And the many times he’s announced his retirement as a porn performer, only to make another comeback.

“I have to tell you that it was a mix of problems connected with my personal life and the dependency that this job,...

Principal photography is set to begin in April on “The Captive” (“El Cautivo”), the period adventure epic from Alejandro Amenábar, whose “The Sea Inside” won an Oscar for best foreign language film. Film Constellation has boarded worldwide sales, and will introduce the project to buyers at the European Film Market.

The film centers on the origin story of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the iconic novel “Don Quixote.” At the age of 28, Cervantes was taken captive by the Moors in Algiers, leading to his creative birth.

The $15 million production will shoot at locations in Spain including Valencia, Alicante and Seville.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is on board to release the film in Spain next year.

The film is set in Algiers in 1575 when Cervantes, a wounded 28-year-old Spanish Navy soldier, is held prisoner by Ottoman corsairs. Faced with a ticking clock, a cruel death awaits him should his...

Netflix has dropped a teaser trailer for “Supersex,” the series freely inspired by the real life of global porn star Rocco Siffredi, which will world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival and drop March 6 on the streamer.

“Every power is an enigma. It can give you light, or throw you into darkness. But every existence lived to its fullest always has a price to pay,” a voiceover says in the teaser as Siffredi is bombarded by fans and paparazzi.

The show looks at how “Rocco Tano — a simple guy from Ortona [a small town in central Italy] — became Rocco Siffredi, the most famous pornstar in the world,” according to its official synopsis.

The hotly anticipated series is created and written by prominent Italian screenwriter Francesca Manieri, who is known for her feminist works.

At the center of “Supersex” – which is produced by Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment, a Fremantle company, and Groenlandia, which is part of...

This year’s Berlinale Specials program, the out-of-competition gala section of the Berlin Film Festival, will include a pair of high-octane action movies: Rose Glass’ crime actioner Love Lies Bleeding starring Kristen Stewart, and Korean thriller The Roundup: Punishment from director Heo Myeong-haeng.

Love Lies Bleeding, which co-stars Anna Baryshnikov, Dave Franco, Katy M. O’Brian, Ed Harris and Jena Malone, will have its international premiere in Berlin after its bow in Sundance later this month. The Roundup: Punishment, starring Train to Busan breakout Don Lee, will have its world premiere in Berlin.

Other Berlinale Special highlights, unveiled Monday, include Shikun, the latest drama from Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai (Kadosh); the documentary project Turn in the Wound, from acclaimed New York auteur Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant), about life in Kyiv since the start of the war in Ukraine; and Supersex, an Italian Netflix drama based on the life of notorious porn star Rocco Siffredi,...

The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled further titles for the 2024 edition of its Berlinale Special Presentations sidebar section alongside its classics program. Scroll down for the full list of titles announced today.

Highlights from the latest drop of Specials titles include Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, a feature documentary about influential British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger narrated by Killers of the Flower Moon filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The feature is directed by David Hinton and features rare archival material from the personal collections of Powell, Pressburger, and Scorsese.

Love Lies Bleeding, the latest feature from British filmmaker Rose Glass will debut in the Specials program. The feature stars Kristen Stewart alongside Katy O’Brian. A short synopsis describes the pic as “a romance fueled by ego, desire, and the American Dream.” The film will arrive at Berlin following it’s debut at Sundance.

Abel Ferrara is...

Netflix has dropped its first key art and several new images for Supersex, the hotly anticipated biographical series on Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi.

Alessandro Borghi, star of Netflix’s mafia drama series Suburra and 2022 Cannes jury prize winner The Eight Mountains, plays Rocco in the fictionalized take on the porn actor’s life. The seven-episode series — created and written by Francesca Manieri, Lorenzo Mieli for Fremantle-owned The Apartment and Matteo Rovere for Banijay’s Groenlandia — will bow on Netflix worldwide March 6, 2024. Rovere, Francesco Carrozzini and Francesca Mazzoleni are directing.

Netflix has said the series is “freely inspired” by Siffredi’s life and career, as well as from direct testimony from Siffredi. Supersex plans to tell the soup-to-nuts story of Rocco from his childhood and family origins through his “relationship with love” that led him to pursue a career in porn.

Jasmine Trinca plays Lucia, a fictional female character who...

Netflix has set a March 6 premiere date for “Supersex,” the series freely inspired by the real life of global porn star Rocco Siffredi, who has more than 1,500 hardcore films to his name.

The series is created and written by prominent Italian screenwriter Francesca Manieri who is known to be a militant feminist. It is described in promotional materials as a profound story that runs through Siffredi’s life since childhood and looks at his family, “his relationship with love” and how “Rocco Tano — a simple guy from Ortona [a small town in central Italy] — became Rocco Siffredi, the most famous pornstar in the world.”

“Supersex” directors are Matteo Rovere (“Romulus”), Francesco Carrozzini (“The Hanging Sun”) and Francesca Mazzoleni (“Punta Sacra”).

At the center of “Supersex” – which is being produced by Lorenzo Mieli’s The Apartment, a Fremantle company, and Groenlandia, which is part of the Banijay group – are unknown aspects of the Italian porn star, who...

“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist–moving an audience through a movie […] making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark,” said the late, great Gordon Willis. As our year-end coverage continues, we must pay dues. From talented newcomers to seasoned professionals, we’ve rounded up the examples that have most impressed us this year.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Jomo Fray)

Raven Jackson’s directorial debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt slows down the cycle of life. The camera rests on hands, on backs, on people connected through touch, sound, and smell. There isn’t any rush, any intention to leave these moments. Jackson and cinematographer Jomo Fray find beauty, grace, and life in two people holding hands, dancing, skinning a fish, and the trees passing while a family drives down the road. The film doesn’t just feel like a...

Speaking at a panel held at the Mia Market in Rome, Netflix execs laid out a European strategy based on cultural and regional specificity alongside wider international format exchange.

“We want to create stories that are really rooted in our country’s culture and tradition,” said Italian content VP Eleonora Andreatta. “[And in order] to be authentic, that means recognizing the differences between one part of the country to the other.”

While Netflix’s recently wrapped adaptation of “The Leopard” is steeped in Sicilian history, the Matilda De Angelis-led returning series “The Law According to Lidia Poët” finds female emancipation in 19th century Turin. And if both titles look backward, both also share an impetus to shade Italian history in a more modern light.

Per Andreatta, Italian cinema’s glorious dolce vita boom had also left a bitter aftertaste by way of cultural stereotypes that lingered for years. Andreatta and her Rome-based...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled four new Italian originals – two feature films and two series – that confirm its continued investment in Italy as local subscribers grow. The new projects also bolster the fact that the bulk of the streamer’s Italian productions are not high end and have a primarily local focus.

During a Rome presentation Eleonora Andreatta – affectionately known as Tinny – who is Netflix’s VP of Italian originals, said that Netflix remains “committed to our investment in Italy and Italian stories with conviction, continuing our long-term commitment to the country and its creative community.”

Andreatta, who owing to having caught Covid-19 was speaking remotely to the packed room, described Netflix’s lineup as being characterised by “Authentic stories, able to speak to the present [and] about the present and [which can] emotionally touch the audience on issues closest to the lives they live.”

According to data released last month by Italy’s...

This is a rare week of heavy hitters in the world of streaming, with a few movies that could factor into the fast-approaching Oscar race making their digital debuts. First up is one of Sundance’s big breakouts, a mature love story that managed to gross a decent $10.8 million at the box office.

The contender to watch this week: “Past Lives“

One of summer’s breakout indies, A24’s “Past Lives” could be a legitimate contender in the Best Original Screenplay field. It certainly accelerated the career of first-time filmmaker Celine Song, a noted playwright who wrote for the Prime Video fantasy series “The Wheel of Time.” Song cast the great Greta Lee to portray a New York-based writer who reunites with her long-lost childhood love (Teo Yoo) as an adult. “Past Lives” is sweet and swoony without sinking into clichés that would weigh down a lesser film. It’s...