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One of Northern Europe’s leading festivals, the A-listed Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (also known as PÖFF) unspooling Nov. 8-24 in the Estonian capital, has unveiled its first features and inaugural documentary competition programs, each boasting an enticingly curated slate of 11 titles.

Among the seven world premieres selected for the First Feature strand are Germany’s “No Dogs Allowed” by student Academy Award nominated Steve Bache tackling the taboo subject of paedophilia in teen years; “Two of Me”, the humorous meta story of twin brothers dreaming to make it big in movies, helmed by Estonian twins “the Eskobros”; and “A Yard of Jackals”, Chilean thriller set during Pinochet’s dictatorship toplining Néstor Cantillana and Blanca Lewin from HBO’s “Fugitives” (“Prófugo”).

Programmer Triin Tramberg said the First Feature selection committee watched 250 films from 66 countries, picking those with the biggest sales and distribution potential.

“We don’t have industry people...

Euro Gang Entertainment, the company launched last year by Hollywood veterans Gianni Nunnari and Simon Horsman (“Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers”) is ramping up operations in Italy through a partnership with Rome-based Alfred Film, the young shingle co-founded by experienced producers Roberto Amoroso and Maria Theresia Braun.

The Euro Gang deal with Alfred currently comprises three feature films and an English-language TV series that will shoot in Italy and elsewhere, according to a statement.

Founded in 2020, Alfred Film – which is named in homage to Alfred Hitchcock – is focused on commercially-driven quality projects such as their mainstream comedy “Tre di Troppo,” directed by and starring Italian comedy draw Fabio De Luigi, which grossed €4.7 million ($5 million) at the local box office and is the third highest-grossing Italian film of 2023.

Amoroso is a former creative director at Sky Italia, where during a long stint at the pay-tv platform he was...

Well-established Italian producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli — who left their Fremantle-owned banners, Wildside and The Apartment, respectively, earlier this year — are returning to the growing TV and film powerhouse with their new scripted outfit.

The duo — who co-founded “The Young Pope” and “My Brilliant Friend” production house Wildside in 2009 before Mieli exited to set up The Apartment, which was behind the recent hit “Priscilla” — are yet to reveal details of their new company. But the pair have now signed a co-production deal with Fremantle that will see them collaborate on several projects.

Among those in production and post-production from the two producers are Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film, Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov -The Ballad,” “Queer” by Luca Guadagnino starring Daniel Craig, the new film by Gabriele Mainetti, “Maria” by Pablo Larraín starring Angelina Jolie, plus the TV series “M. The Son of the Century” by Joe Wright and “Il Mostro” by Stefano Sollima.

“Very beautiful and very challenging.” Those are the first two words that director Stefano Sollima uses to describe his upcoming, four-part Netflix crime series Il Mostro, which has just finished filming. Created by Leonardo Fasoli and Sollima (who also co-produced with Lorenzo Mieli), and produced by The Apartment — a Fremantle company — and AlterEgo Productions, this is a series that has faced titanic challenges. Sollima is no stranger to the crime genre, having directed the so-called Romanzo Criminale (criminal Rome trilogy) — Acab (All Cops Are Bastards), Suburra and Adagio — as well as Soldado the 2018 sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, and Senza Rimorso (Without Remorse), the 2021 thriller co-written by Taylor Sheridan and based on the book by Tom Clancy. This is all in addition to being the showrunner on the seminal Italian crime series Gomorra and ZeroZeroZero, his ambitious series based on Roberto Saviano’s book about the international drug trade.

Two heavyweights of German television and film are uniting.

Nico Hofmann and Jan Mojto are teaming with Jan Wünschmann, a producer at Mojto’s company Beta, to create films and TV series in Germany and Europe. Projects will be targeted at the international market.

Hofmann, was the longtime boss of German production giant UFA, and Mojto said they are “connected by half a lifetime of producing” title such as TV event series The Tunnel in the early 2000s and newer series such as Generation War, Dresden, The Tower and The Same Sky.

“Jan Mojto and I have been close colleagues and friends for more than 20 years – our eye for programming, uncompromising quality, and passion for our profession unites us,” said Hofmann. “It is the next logical step in my career to join forces and produce together with Beta Film. The individuals and their creativity are the building blocks for a long-lasting bond.

Sting, Isabella Rossellini, and U.S. director Roger Ross Williams came out to support the recent New York launch of Matteo Garrone’s Venice prizewinning immigration epic “Io Capitano” at the Museum of Modern Art.

The movie – which is Italy’s now shortlisted Oscar candidate for best international feature film – narrates the Homeric journey of two two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou and Moussa, who decide to leave Dakar to reach Europe in pursuit of a better life. It realistically depicts their plight through the pitfalls of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea.

Variety critic Guy Lodge in his review called “Io Capitano” the director’s “most robust, purely satisfying filmmaking since Garrone’s international breakthrough with ‘Gomorrah’ 15 years ago.” The drama, which at Venice won best director and best emerging actor for its co-star Seydou Sarr is Italy’s strongest Oscar contender in recent memory.

Studiocanal has boarded “A Prophet,” a new television adaptation of Jacques Audiard’s acclaimed 2009 film. The eight-episode limited series started filming on July 3, with “Django” director Enrico Maria Artale and a diverse new cast led by Mamadou Sidibé.

The French-language series brings back the award-winning team behind the original film, including creators and writers Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit (“The Returned”), as well as producer Marco Cherqui (“Savages”), in agreement with “A Prophet” producers Why Not Productions and Page 114.

The show, which is filming in Marseille and Puglia, Italy, is produced by Cherqui and Sebastien Janin, former Apple exec and co-founder of Media Musketeers, and co-produced by Ugc, Orange Studio, Entourage Series and Savon Noir, with the participation of Ocs. The key crew includes “Gomorra” cinematographer Ferran Paredes Rubio. Veteran Italian producer Fabio Conversi (“Youth”) is exec producing the series.

The original movie won the grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival,...

The White Lotus actress Sabrina Impacciatore is set for Call My Agent‘s second season on Sky Italia.

She will join the likes of Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Claud Santamaria in the Sky Original, which is from Sky Studios and Palomar and follows a group of agents trying to keep their demanding clients in work and under control.

Impacciatore was one of several breakout stars from the most recent season of HBO’s The White Lotus, which was set in an Italian hotel.

Season one of Call My Agent – Italia launched on the Sky pay-tv platform in January and starred the likes of Paolo Sorrentino.

The original Call My Agent was from France’s Mediawan, which counts Palomar among its production companies. It ran on Netflix and was known as Dix Pour Cent.

It was announced as part of a 28-title strong slate launched to celebrate Sky Italia’s 20th anniversary.

Exclusive: Subscription streaming outlet MHz Choice, which brings prestige international television to North American viewers, has set its summer slate with the U.S./Canada premieres of 15 series and nine returning shows. Included among them are French period mystery Agatha Christie’s Criminal Games: The ‘70s and Don’t Leave Me, an Italian police drama from the creators of Gomorra.

France Television’s Criminal Games debuts on the service June 13. The 10-part series adapts Agatha Christie’s mysteries in the 1970s and is led by three intrepid investigators. Emilie Gavois-Kahn, Arthur Dupont and Chloé Chaudoye star. Creator is Thierry Debroux.

On August 15, Federation Entertainment’s Don’t Leave Me will bring Deputy Chief Elena Zonin (Vittoria Puccini) back to her hometown of Venice to hunt down a network of kidnappers. There, she’s confronted...

Pietro Marcello’s French-language period drama “Scarlet” is set to open the 54th edition of Cannes’ Directors Fortnight on May 18.

Weaving musical and fantasy elements, the film is set in Northern Normandy, between the two world wars, a time of great inventions, and follows the journey of a young woman who was raised by her father, a widowed war veteran, and strives to find her own path in life.

Marcello, a critically acclaimed Italian filmmaker whose credits include the Venice prize-winning “Martin Eden,” penned the script with his regular screenwriting partner Maurizio Braucci (“Gomorra”), as well as Maud Ameline (“Amanda”), with the participation of the novelist Geneviève Brisac.

“Scarlet” is produced by Charles Gillibert at CG Cinema with Avventurosa and Rai Cinema in Italy, in collaboration with Ilya Stewart (Hype Film) and Antonio Miyakawa (Wise Pictures). Orange Studio is handling international sales while Le Pacte will distribute it in France.

In the age of branding and franchises, every existing story has added value. But not every film is fit for TV.

The challenge of adapting movies to a new medium is a tricky one with no clear-cut way to do it. Many new series credit “Fargo” as their benchmark, citing its tone and setting as inspiration for creating a new world around the best parts of what came before. That’s all well and good, but there are as many failed attempts to replicate Noah Hawley’s strategy as successes.

Similarly, some carbon copies — using the same characters and plot points as the preceding movie — are just as good, if not better than their cinematic predecessors. Because any way can work, many various attempts have been made. There’s no right way to do it, but there are a lot of wrong ways; as evidenced by the growing pile of canceled shows based on movies.

Exclusive: Second edition of event hosted with Greece’s Faliro House will support filmmakers from the region.

The participants for the second edition of the Faliro House Sundance Institute Mediterranean Screenwriters Workshop have been revealed.

The workshop, a collaboration between the Sundance Institute and Christos V Konstantakopoulos’ Greek production company Faliro House, supports emerging filmmakers from Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Cyprus (last year’s event is pictured above).

The five-day workshop, held in Costa Navarino, Greece from July 3-9, gives eight filmmakers the chance to work on their feature film scripts with advisors.

The advisors include filmmaker Gyula Gazdag, artistic director for the Sundance Institute in the Us, Lisa Cholodenko (Olive Kitteridge, The Kids Are Alright), Julie Delpy (Before Midnight, 2 Days In Paris), Jeff Nichols (Loving, Take Shelter), recent Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund (The Square, Force Majeure), Ira Sachs (Little Men, Love Is Strange), Zach Sklar (JFK), Eva Stefani (Bathers, Acropolis) and Athina Rachel Tsangari...

Palme d'Or winner 'The Square' with Claes Bang: 'Gobsmackingly weird' Cannes Film Festival favorite may have a tough time landing a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination. Ruben Östlund's comedy-drama is totally unrelated to Jehane Noujaim's 2013 Oscar-nominated political documentary of the same title, which refers to downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square. Cannes' Palme d'Or winner 'The Square' & other Official Competition favorites' Oscar chances Screenwriter-director Ruben Östlund's The Square was the Palme d'Or winner at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, which wrapped up on May 28. (See list of Palme d'Or and other 2017 Cannes winners further below.) Clocking in at about 2 hours and 20 minutes, Östlund's unusual comedy-drama revolving around the chaotic p.r. campaign to promote the opening of the titular installation – a symbolic square of light – at a contemporary art museum in Stockholm has been generally well-received by critics. In the opinion of The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw,...

Exclusive: Palomar, Elle Driver join forces on adaptation of bestseller.

Elle Driver is launching sales on Roberto Saviano’s big screen adaptation of his Italian bestseller La Paranza Dei Bambini capturing the ferocious world of budding teenage crime bosses in Naples jockeying for power in the backstreets of the city.

Carlo Degli Esposti and Nicola Serra at Rome-based Palomar are producing. Wild Bunch and Elle Driver are on board as French co-producers. Wild Bunch Distribution has taken French rights.

“Elle Driver has always sought strong stories. Working with Saviano offers the perfect combination of one of the world’s most talented writers and an explosive story which is at once local and universal,” Elle Driver chief Adeline Fontan Tessaur said.

Saviano is working with long-time collaborator Maurizio Braucci on the screenplay. Claudio Giovannesi, who was in Cannes Critics’ Week last year with gritty jail-set romance Fiore, is attached to direct. The shoot will...

Gomorrah director’s new film starts shooting this summer.

International sales for Matteo Garrone’s upcoming film Dogman will be handled by Rai Com.

The movie, which is described as a contemporary Western based on one of Italy’s biggest 20th century crimes, is an international co-production between Italy and France.

Garrone is producing alongside Jean Labadie and Jeremy Thomas, with Archimede and Le Pacte acting as production companies alongside Rai Com. Hanway retains UK rights.

Rai Com’s head of International Sales Mattia Oddone said: “We are honoured to handle sales for the return to Italy of Matteo Garrone, one of the most interesting and influential directors of his generation.

“We are also pleased to collaborate with our colleagues at Hanway in the UK to ensure his new film achieves the widest possible distribution internationally.”

Dogman starts shooting in August. Garrone’s credits include Gomorrah and Tale of Tales, as well as...

Out April 13, 2017 in Italian theatres, Francesco Amato’s comedy sees the Neapolitan actor playing the role of a rigid psychoanalyst who winds up in trouble

by Camillo De Marco from Cineuropa.org

Toni Servillo in “Let Yourself Go!”

Toni Servillo in a comic role? Yes it is possible, and happens in “Let Yourself Go”/ “Lasciati andare” by Francesco Amato (“Cosimo and Nicole”), in theatres as of today with 01 Distribution. With a beard and glasses à la Sigmund Freud, Servillo plays a psychoanalyst who lives and works in the Roman ghetto, a beautiful neighbourhood in the historic city centre which is rarely used in films. Separated from his wife Giovanna (played by a Carla Signoris on top form) — but with a very thin wall separating their respective bedrooms — Dr. Elia Venezia lives a methodical and rather self-centered existence, livened up only by the weirdness of some of his clients, until one...

Roberto Saviano is writing series about infamous Libyan dictator.

Entertainment One (eOne) and Palomar have announced a new TV series about the life of Muammar Gaddafi, created by Gomorrah writer Roberto Saviano.

Saviano is developing Gaddafi and will share writing duties with Nadav Schirman (The Green Prince). The duo will also executive produce.

The series will examine the life of Gaddafi, who ruled Libya from 1969 to 2011, when he was captured and killed.

eOne controls worldwide rights to the series, which is being spearheaded by eOne’s Carrie Stein and Polly Williams with Palomar’s Carlo Degli Esposti and Nicola Serra.

“This is a TV series about a warrior, a dreamer, who becomes a savage and merciless tyrant. A multi-millionaire oil tycoon and a vicious oppressor,” said Saviano.

“It’s the story of an adventurer from the desert, a rock ‘n’ roll tyrant, who self-ascribed terrorist attacks he didn’t organize and associations with terrorist groups that he...

Entertainment One and Italy's Palomar are teaming for a new series based on the life and times of Muammar Gaddafi and the effects he had on the world today. Gaddafi is being developed by Gomorrah writer Roberto Saviano and is created and written by Saviano and Nadav Schirman (The Green Prince). The series is based on the life of the former Libyan revolutionary, a man with a bottomless desire for power who wanted a worldwide revolution. Gaddafi was an enigmatic leader who…...

Two of Italy’s most-praised directors currently working are moving forward with their next films. First up, Paolo Sorrentino, following his stint into television with The Young Pope, is readying his next film, a biopic on Silvio Berlusconi. He’s now cast his star of the Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, as well as Ill Divo, Toni Servillo, to lead the feature, according to Variety.

Set to begin shooting this summer in Italy as Sorrentino sharpens the screenplay, the current title is Loro (aka Them), which is also a play on L’oro, meaning gold. The drama about the media mogul who become Italy’s 50th Prime Minister is currently seeking financing, which is said to be proven difficult, although Amazon may be considering jumping aboard. Not expected be a “scathing critique,” the director aims to depict the idea that power is everyone and Berlusconi as a “concentrate of non-negligible mysteries.

“Gomorrah” is returning to SundanceTV this April for a 12-episode second season. A new trailer for season 2 of Italy’s most popular crime drama teases new car chases, explosions, killings and lots of gunfire.

Read More: ‘American Gods’ Trailer: Neil Gaiman’s Best-Seller Comes to the Small Screen — Watch

Season 2 picks up moments after the end of the first season: Don Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino) has escaped from the prison van. Genny’s boys have been killed by rival Conte, and Ciro di Marzio (Marco D’Amore) has shot Genny (Salvatore Esposito). The new season sees Ciro, Genny and Savastano fighting (and killing) for absolute domination over organized crime in the Italian city of Naples.

“Gomorrah” is based on Roberto Saviano’s 2006 non-fiction bestseller of the same name. The book was adapted for the big screen and won the Grand Prix prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Read More: ‘The...

Exclusive: F&Me slate includes two projects with Ida writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz; plus Streetkids United III.

UK co-production specialists Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me) have boarded films to shoot in 2017 including The Dream Girl written and directed by Maurizio Braucci, best known for writing Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra and Reality.

Braucci co-wrote the film with Ida writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz and the UK-Ireland co-production is set to shoot from September. F&Me are working with accountants Grant Thornton in Ireland to access the section 481 tax credit. Windmill Lane is on board for post-production services.

F&Me are also working with Lenkiewicz on The Disciple, to be directed by Ivan Ostrochovsky and written by Lenkiewicz, Marek Lescak and Ostrochovsky. The film looks at two friends who go to a seminary in Communist Slovakia.

Also shooting by the end of 2017 will be the documentary Streetkids United III – The Road to Moscow. As with the past two films in the...

Victors on the night included Russian-French co-pro Jumpman and UK ghost story Martyrs’ Lane.

The 2017 edition of CineMart, the industry arm of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr), crowned its winners tonight (Feb 1) at a ceremony held at primary festival venue De Doelen.

A total of 26 projects from 24 countries participated in the 34rd edition of the long-running co-production market. Four prizes were handed out on the night.

The CineMart jury was comprised of Uldis Dimiševskis, head of production and development at National Film Centre of Latvia, producer Annamaria Lodato and Anton Scholten, co-founder of leading Dutch post-production and VFX house Filmmore.

The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, worth €20,000, went to Jumpman, a Russia-France co-pro from writer-director Ivan I. Tverdovsky, his third feature following 2016 Karlovy Vary jury prize-winning Zoology and Corrections Class in 2014. Mila Rozanova of Moscow’s New People Film Company is producing the project, which also has Guillaume de Seille of Paris-based Arizona Productions as a co-producer...

It's a new year and SundanceTV has some new seasons in store. Today, the network announced the new seasons of Hap and Leonard and Gomorrah will debut this spring.Based on the books by Joe R. Lansdale, Hap and Leonard follows two best friends (James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams) entangled in a murder case in 1980s East Texas. Set in the suburbs of Naples, Gomorrah tells the inside story of the Camorra, the fierce Neapolitan crime organization. The cast includes Marco D’Amore and Fortunato Cerlino.Read More…...

Council of Europe’s cinema fund to award €3,843,000.

Eurimages, the council of Europe’s fund for co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinema, has announced it will support 13 films (including a documentary and an animation) for a combined €3,843,000.

The projects selected by the Eurimages board are:

Wicked Games (Austria, Germany, France) - Ulrich SeidlDouble Bind (Belgium, France) - Olivier Masset-DepassePinocchio (Italy, France) - Matteo Garrone (Italy)Memoirs From The Cell (Spain, France, Argentina, Uruguay) - Álvaro BrechnerWhere Are You, João Gilberto? (Switzerland, Germany, France) - Georges GachotAbout Endlessness (Sweden, Germany, France, Norway) - Roy AnderssonThe Crossing (France, Germany, Czech Republic) - Florence Miailhe Life Runs Over You (Italy, Iceland) - Paolo SassanelliWild Witch (Denmark, Hungary, Norway) - Kaspar MunkKings (France, Belgium) - Deniz Gamze ErgüvenVirgins (France, Israel, Belgium) - Keren Ben Rafael The Cellar (Slovakia, Russia, Czech Republic) - Igor VoloshinLady Winsley (France, Turkey, Belgium) - Hiner Saleem

Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio is a high profile film on...

Exclusive: Italian sales company is being directed by Francesco Amato.

Italian sales outfit Rai Com will launch sales at Afm on Let Yourself Go, Francesco Amato’s comedy starring Toni Servillo.

The Gomorrah and The Great Beauty [pictured] actor, who was recently cast as Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s upcoming Pinocchio adaptation, stars as a psychoanalyst who lives next door to - and is still in love with - his ex-wife.

Everything changes when his doctor advises him to look after his health, and he encounters Claudia, a personal trainer oblivious to the matters of the mind but concentrated on those of the flesh.

Let Yourself Go is produced by Cattleya and Rai Cinema.

Pinocchio is probably a bit low on your list of classic tales that could use a 21st-century makeover, but a take that’s helmed by Matteo Garrone (Tale of Tales, Gommorah) and led by Toni Servillo (The Great Beauty) is, if nothing else, more interesting than most possible combinations. (I’m still a bit peeved the Paul Thomas Anderson-Robert Downey Jr. one never took off, though.) Per Variety, the director’s Archimede Productions is partnering with Jeremy Thomas’ Recorded Picture Company and Le Pacte on a project that will combine physical materials with CGI for the purposes of a “a unique fantasy world of mystery and wonder, with a story filled with luminous, funny and touching moments.” Whatever that actually means.

Garrone takes it as a continuation of his previous feature, Tale of Tales, but also says it’s “a dream of mine that goes back in time,...

Hollywood has spent years trying to figure out a way to mount a live action “Pinocchio” movie. Guillermo del Toro, Stanley Kubrick, and Tim Burton have tried at various points to bring the fairy tale to life, while most recently, Paul Thomas Anderson penned a script for a movie Robert Downey Jr. has been shepherding for years (and at one time Ben Stiller was attached to direct).

Continue reading ‘Gomorrah’ Duo Matteo Garrone & Toni Servillo Reteam For ‘Pinocchio’ at The Playlist.

Italian actor Toni Servillo, who's known for his role in the Foreign-Language Oscar winner The Great Beauty, is set to star in Matteo Garrone's new imagining of the classic tale Pinocchio. He'll play the wooden puppet's father Geppetto, reteaming him with Garrone for the first time since the duo worked together on the 2008 Cannes Film Festival hit Gomorrah. Rarely revisited since the 1940 Disney classic, Garrone’s live-action version will take an “artisanal approach…...

Exclusive: HanWay to sell live-action feature produced by Jeremy Thomas and Jean Labadie; shoot set for spring 2017.

The Great Beauty star Toni Servillo is set to play Geppetto in Gomorrah and Tale Of Tales director Matteo Garrone’s anticipated live-action update of Carlo Collodi’s classic tale Pinocchio.

Writer-director Garrone is set to reteam with many of the creative team behind his 2015 fantasy-drama Tale Of Tales, which debuted at Cannes, using a mixture of prosthetics and CGI to create the characters.

HanWay has boarded sales on the intriguing project and will introduce it to buyers at the upcoming Afm. Additional casting is underway.

Producers include Garrone’s Archimede, Jeremy Thomas’s Rpc and Jean Labadie’s Le Pacte, in association with Rai Cinema. Rai Cinema will release the film in Italy, and Le Pacte will release the film in France.

Principal photography is due to get underway in spring 2017, reuniting Garrone with his Gomorrah star Servillo.

Speaking...

In this U.S. exclusive clip of Italy’s most popular crime drama, we see exactly what happens when mob rivalry turns personal. Set in Naples, “Gomorrah” focuses on the connection – and clash – between organized crime and ordinary citizens. The show has come out strong in its first few episodes with themes of rivalry, revenge, family, money, drugs, and betrayal.

Read More: ‘Gomorrah’ Review: Italian Drama is a Darker, Grown-Up Version of ‘The Sopranos’

The hugely popular show, which originally aired internationally in 2014, seems to be picking up speed in the U.S. During Part 3, Ciro (Marco d’Amore) takes a boat ride with Conte (Marco Palvetti) in an attempt to “make things right,” but there’s no going back when you mess with Conte’s family. When the outing goes south in a hurry, it looks like not everyone is guaranteed to make it back to shore.

The series...

Directed by Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah), Tale of Tales was nominated for Cannes' prestigious Palm d'Or and many other awards, but does that make it a good film? I'm on the fence about this feature that follows the tales of three tales, all from 17th-century poet Giambattista Basile. These stories follow three kings, a princess, a prince, and one queen. The film is beautifully shot and the production, art, and costume design are all breathtaking. The acting is great, too, and it should be, as the caliber of stars such as John C. Reilly, Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and the like know what they're doing. But in terms of story, there's just that elusive something that feels missing.  Sometimes I was engaged in the plot, other times, I didn't...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Rather than glamorizing or moralizing on its gangster milieu, “Gomorrah” chooses a chilling third option, stoically presenting it as an inescapable reality that ensnares everyone in its path. Based on the acclaimed nonfiction book that inspired 2008’s award-winning film of the same name, this engrossingly entertaining Italian series offers taut, pitiless storytelling that lends its 12-episode first season the brutal efficiency of a mob hitman. Originally airing on Italian television in 2014 — with a second season debuting earlier this year — “Gomorrah” comes to Sundance TV, whose viewers don’t need to be familiar with Roberto Saviano’s book (or the...

“Gomorrah,” an Italian crime series imported by SundanceTV after finding much success overseas, is largely set at night. That darkness may be the first — and possibly most significant — change that fans of the 2008 film notice.

Matteo Garrone’s original feature used light to boldly depict the violence overwhelming his home country. But the series from Leonardo Fasoli, Giovanni Bianconi, Stefano Bises, Ludovica Rampoldi and Roberto Saviano (yes, they’re all credited as creators) uses shadows to its advantage, providing stark contrast between the hidden lifestyle of a mafia family and the stark realities of its results.

It’s not the only change from the Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner, but the shift affects more than just the challenge of watching in daylight. The serialized take on “Gomorrah” — which has aired two seasons already in Italy, with two more on the way — feels like a much more straightforward crime story; one...

American pop culture is filled with stories of organized crime. From “The Godfather” to “The Sopranos,” many acclaimed films and TV shows have portrayed the inherent drama in mafia subculture. Now, American audiences have another compelling mob story to hold their interest, and this time it’s actually from Italy. The Italian crime drama “Gomorrah” follows Neapolitan organized crime and the complex interpersonal relationships between gangsters and ordinary citizens trying to live their lives. The series’ protagonist is Ciro (Marco D’Amore), or “The Immortal,” the right-hand man to feared crime boss Don Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), who instigates a violent turf war between two rival factions. Watch an exclusive clip from the series below featuring Don Peitro accusing a subordinate of ratting him out to the cops.

Read More: Looking For the Next Great Mob Drama? It Might Be Italy’s ‘Gomorrah’

The series is based on Roberto Saviano...

The Italian mob drama Gomorrah was first described to me as "Italy's The Wire." That's an unfair label to hang on any new show, and one that for the most part doesn't even really fit, as Gomorrah is a much more traditional crime show, without most of the larger sociological interests that made The Wire one of the best series in TV history. But as I watched the early installments of the series, which makes its American debut tonight at 10 on Sundance with back-to-back episodes, I experienced the same two feelings I often hear of from people watching The Wire for the first time: 1)I'm having a hard time keeping track of who anyone is and what their role is in this world. 2)I don't see what the fuss is yet, and I hope this is all adding up to something. With The Wire, I generally tell people to give...

It's strange, it's different, and I can see why it wasn't a theatrical hit... but Matteo Garrone's superb telling of three very adult, very extreme 17th century folk tales is a special item, beautifully directed and visually splendid. Tale of Tales Blu-ray Shout! Factory 2016 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 133 min. / Street Date September 6, 2016 / 22.97 Starring Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, John C. Reilly, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael, Bebe Cave, Stacy Martin, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees, Laura Pizzirani, Franco Pistoni, Jessie Cave. Cinematography Peter Suschitzky Film Editor Marco Spoletini Production Design Dimitri Capuani Original Music Alexandre Desplat Written by Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso from a book by Giambattista Basile Produced by Matteo Garrone, Anne Labadie, Jean Labadie, Jeremy Thomas Directed by Matteo Garrone

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Matteo Garrone needs no more endorsement than a mention of his terrific modern gangster film Gomorrah (2008), an epic that makes the...

Almost since storytelling began, audiences have been enthralled by the dark side of human nature. In the world of modern entertainment, that fascination has often taken the shape of stories centering on organized crime and the criminal underworld in general. Film and television have been marked by several beloved takes on this particular subject matter, from The Godfather to The Sopranos. So some may wonder if there’s really any new ground to break with regards to mafia-set tales of honor, retaliation and family. Gomorrah proves that there is still dramatic potential in the world of organized crime as well as an opportunity to bring something surprisingly fresh to viewers.

Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, the Italian TV series debuted in 2014 to critical acclaim and quickly drew comparisons to American dramas like The Wire that take a similarly street-level look at crime and the society that supports it in many ways.

It won't come as a shock to anyone who has obsessively absorbed imported television in the last five years, but it's not just the Brits who can make (or exceed) American-quality television. All around the world there have been excellent dramatic imports. On Aug. 24, Sundance TV finally gives the U.S. audience a chance to see Gomorrah, the 2014 Italian drama series based on Roberto Saviano's 2006 nonfiction book on the Camorra, the Neapolitan crime syndicate, that was turned into a 2008 movie by Matteo Garrone. But the Italian television series transcended all of that and proved to

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Filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos was one of the most widely acclaimed international art film directors of the 20th century, specializing in poetic, political films about contemporary Greece. Now, the Museum of Moving Image in New York will run a complete retrospective of Angelopoulos’ career, the first of its kind in the United States in 25 years. See the trailer for the series below.

Read More: NYC: Sidney Poitier Retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image Kicks Off This Weekend (April 9-17)

Chief Curator David Schwartz says that “as a new generation of Greek filmmakers, including Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari, have reached international prominence, the time is ripe to see Angelopoulos anew, as cinema that reflects on the past while foretelling the turbulent world we are now living in.”

Some of the film in the series include his 1986 breakthrough work “Landscape in the Mist,” about two siblings traveling on their own...

Couched in the sort of kinetic and pounding direction that has hallmarked director Stefano Sollima’s work on Gomorra – the now two series-strong television take on Roberto Saviano’s book of the same name (and itself adapted into a film in 2008) – the gruesome Suburra is a down n’ dirty, and thoroughly testy affair. In […]

The post Suburra Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Matteo Garrone first came to prominence internationally upon the release of his striking mafia epic Gomorrah - it might be hard to imagine just a few short years later he's off into the woods for a lavish cavort in a land of fairy tales. That is the case in Tale of Tales, though, a deliciously macabre fantasy and the director's first film in the English language and starring famous names like Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones. Matteo sat down with CineVue's Ben Nicholson to discuss the origins of the project and his inspirations in bringing the world to life.

Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones star in the Gomorrah director’s wonderful carnival of black-comic bad taste based on 16th-century folk stories

Film fantasy usually comes in two separate servings: either from what The Lego Movie called “Middle Zealand”, a Tolkien/GoT world of exotic and deadly serious myth for adults, or from the Disney-Pixar castle: hyperactive, super-smart animation for children. Through the simple fact of having a sense of humour, Matteo Garrone’s wonderful Tale of Tales is closer to the second model, but where a Pixar film is fiercely focused on its younger audience with continuous flicks of discreet sophistication for older consumers, Tale of Tales is for adults, with a perpetual undercurrent of childlike reverence for the bizarre events unfolding on screen. It’s fabulous in every sense.

Related: Tale of Tales: ‘Don’t try to understand it - just feel it’

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★★★★☆ Once upon a time, fairytales were folk tales. Then they became children's stories, were made into Disney cartoons and now star Angelina Jolie or Charlize Theron. Into the woods strides Matteo Garrone's Tale of Tales, an anthology of 17th century folk tales by Giambattista Basile told with a verve and commitment to the strange. Best known for his neo-neo-realism with such films as the Naples based gangland drama Gomorrah (which showed in the Un Certain Regard sidebar in 2008) and Reality, which showed in competition in 2012, Tale of Tales is Garrone's first feature in English, but in a way the film is in an older language.

The actor on her new film, a fairytale for adults, her creepy character in Happy Valley and feeling lost in drama school

Shirley Henderson, 50, has starred in numerous television, film and theatre productions, including Wonderland, Topsy-Turvy, Happy Valley, Southcliffe and Hamish Macbeth. She plays Jude in the Bridget Jones films, and Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter franchise. She studied drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and lives in Fife with her partner. Her new film, Tale of Tales, is directed by the Italian Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Reality) and also stars Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel and Toby Jones. It’s based on a trio of Neapolitan poet Giambattista Basile’s ancient fantasy morality tales, which predate the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Henderson plays Imma, an old woman who yearns to be like her sister, Dora, who has been transformed by magic into a beautiful young maiden, who has beguiled the king.

Tale of Tales is Matteo Garrone’s first English-speaking film. How did you find working with him?

Fascinating. Obviously there’s a language barrier, but he knows enough. He doesn’t tell you too much until you begin, then he’s very clear about what he wants. It was an Italian set, and you think everybody’s shouting at you, but they’re not – it’s just a hyped-up atmosphere. He’s very exciting to work with and I’d jump at the chance again.

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From the director of Gomorra comes the deliciously odd adult fairy tale, Tale Of Tales. Ryan reviews a cult gem in the making...

Like The Princess Bride directed by Ken Russell, Matteo Garrone’s Tale Of Tales is a full-blooded and decidedly adult fairy tale. Set in a quasi-medieval Europe of castles, four-poster beds, bulbous gowns, the movie relates a grimly comic set of interlocking fables.

It begins with a king and queen (respectively, John C Reilly and Salma Hayek) who turn to witchcraft in order to conceive a child, before lurching to the story of monarch (Vincent Cassell) who’s so sex-obsessed that he embarks on a romance with a peasant girl based purely on her angelic singing voice. You can probably guess the king’s reaction when he discovers that the peasant girl is actually far older and more leprous than he assumes.

Weirdest of the lot is the story of yet another king (this one played by Toby Jones) who rears a giant flea and then, for reasons far too complicated and wonderful to relate here, unwillingly marries off his lily white young daughter Violet (Bebe Cave) to a hideous ogre. You might think from these brief descriptions that there isn’t very much linking these surreal, dark and sometimes violent stories, but the realisation gradually dawns that each carries echoes of the last. A pair of siblings are reunited in one story, while a pair of sisters are divided in the next; one character becomes a royal over here, while a luckless heir is cast into a filth and misery over there. To loosely quote George Lucas, “It’s like poetry. It rhymes”.

A deeper meaning behind Garrone’s mad fantasy is harder to pin down. At first, it’s enough to simply admire his often stunningly conceived images: a character dining on crimson offal in an ice-white room. Toby Jones befriending his pet flea. Tale Of Tales brings us universal stories of birth, death, marriage and desire, but viewed through a uniquely strange filter. Dramatic irony is everywhere,and there’s a recurring theme about divisions: between old and young, rich and poor, life and death.

Relying less on obvious splashes of CGI than most mainstream fantasies, Tale Of Tales’ use of real European locations and physical effects set it apart from the likes of, say, Duncan Jones' Warcraft or Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies. There’s an earthiness to the creature designs and costumes that brings Tale Of Tales closer to the look and feel of Jean-Jacques Annaud’s underrated adaptation of Umberto Eco’s The Name Of The Rose, or maybe Paul Verhoeven’s American debut, Flesh + Blood. There’s also a hint of the matter-of-factness that made Garrone’s 2008 Mafia drama Gomorrah such compulsive viewing.

Where so many films leave us numbed by their swooping computerised vistas, Tale Of Tales keeps things at gut-level. There’s a wonderfully ominous funeral sequence which, thanks to some stunning competition and sound design, provides a captivating moment to pore over before Garrone suddenly shifts the action to a jarringly sordid moment elsewhere.

Cut to Alexandre Desplat’s lush score, Garrone’s film moves with between tones with ease. Some scenes have all the humour of a joke well told. Other moments in Tale Of Tales are gory on a level approaching Game Of Thrones. One sequence is genuinely terrifying. Inevitably, the film’s sheer weirdness won’t endear everybody - one or two people were checking their phones in the screening I attended. Those with a taste for the imaginative and the surreal will surely be bewitched by Garrone’s fairytale anthology, however, and there’s the strong possibility that Tale Of Tales will acquire cult status in years to come.

My advice? Cut to the chase and watch it in a cinema while you can.

Tale Of Tales is out in UK cinemas on the 17th June.

Movies Tale Of Tales Salma Hayek John C Reilly Vincent Cassell Toby Jones Tale Of Tales Matteo Garrone movie review Review Ryan Lambie 15 Jun 2016 - 06:17...

Stars: Salma Hayek, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees, Vincent Cassel, Hayley Carmichael, Shirley Henderson, Toby Jones, Bebe Cave, Guillaume Delaunay, John C. Reilly | Written by Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso | Directed by Matteo Garrone

Tale of Tales is a peculiar film and it’s difficult to know where to start with it. It has been directed by Matteo Garrone, who is best known for the Italian gangster film Gomorrah, a film so naturalistic in its approach, it almost felt like a documentary. Which makes Tale of Tales, a retelling of three archetypal fairystories with a surreal dream-like approach, a surprise straight out of leftfield.

The three interwoven stories take place in separate kingdoms. In the first, Salma Hayek’s queen uses dark magic to finally give her a son (Christian Lees), but becomes violently jealous when her progeny prefers the company of his mysterious doppelganger (Jonah Lees) to her.

The Leone Film Group has begun developing an English-language TV series titled "Colt," based on an idea developed by the late and great iconic spaghetti western filmmaker Sergio Leone.

The concept centers around the six-shooter gun packed by Clint Eastwood in "For a Fistful of Dollars." In 1987 Sergio Leone hooked up with his old writing partners Sergio Donati and Fulvio Morsella to work on an idea for a TV series about a Colt revolver that passes from owner to owner throughout the Old West.

Leone was said to be interested in a more naturalistic take on the Spaghetti Western genre than his earlier works, hoping to show the Old West "like it really was." Donati wrote a treatment draft, but then the project was abandoned.

Italian director Stefano Sollima (Sky's "Gomorra") will direct the first two episodes and act as showrunner along with writing the screenplay alongside Luca Infascelli and Massimo Gaudioso.

In the new crime drama "Pericle," a mafia hit man (Riccardo Scamarcio) living in Belgium accidentally kills a woman related to an enemy clan of his Don. When he's sentenced to death, Pericle goes on the run to hide in the shadows and live a new life. He finds safe harbor in France where he meets a woman who wishes to help him. Soon they start a relationship that provides Pericle the first chance at a different life, one that exists outside the confines of mafia culture. But when he discovers that his own Don sold his head, Pericle must takes revenge on those who wish to steal his life away. Check out an exclusive clip from the film above ahead of its Cannes premiere in the Un Certain Regard section. Read More: Cannes First Look: The Dardennes' 'The Unknown Girl,' Andrea Arnold's 'American Honey' And...

[caption id="attachment_48393" align="aligncenter" width="579"] Fortunato Cerlino and Maria Pia Calzone. Photo credit: Emanuela Scarpa./caption]

Acclaimed Italian crime series, Gomorrah, premieres in the Us, Wednesday, August 24th at 10:00pm Et, on SundanceTV. The Gomorrah TV show is based on the best-selling book by journalist Roberto Saviano.

Set in the suburbs of Naples, Gomorrah tells the inside story of the Camorra, the fierce Neapolitan crime organization. Gomorrah is told through the eyes of Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D'Amore), the right hand of the clan’s godfather, Pietro Savastanno (Fortunato Cerlino).

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These Predator Plushies from Kidrobot’s Predator Plush Phunny Collection don’t bleed and don’t have camouflaging abilities, but they are available now for purchase. Also in today’s Horror Highlights: a new clip from Tale of Tales starring Salma Hayek and a GoFundMe to help rebuild Yuya Ishikawa’s fire-damaged bar.

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Dutch: If it bleeds, we can kill it.