European Films

Italian hit comedy director Giovanni Veronesi (Manuale d'amore / The Handbook of Love) has revealed that his next film will again be an ensemble work and will be about Italians abroad. Simply titled Italians, the film will star Carlo Verdone (Manuale d'amore), Riccardo Scamarcio (who starred in the sequel Manuale d'amore 2 (Capitoli successivi)) and Sergio Castellitto (La stella che non c'è / The Missing Star), who already worked with the director on the 1996 comedy Silenzio, si nasce (lit. Silence! Births Ongoing). Veronesi has said that shooting could already start next autumn, with locations including Saint Petersburg, Dubai and Los Angeles. (source: cinecittà)

 

Finnish director Hanna Maylett is currently preparing for an October start for her new film Indigo, a parenthood drama in which the biological mother of a 13-year-old girl is asked to return from Sweden to the Finnish horse farm of the father of the girl following an accident. The mother seems bent on staying at the farm, which creates friction as the father has since remarried and has not seen her for ten years. Jorma Tommila is attached to play the father in the €1.1 million film. The screenplay was written by Tarja Kylmä, whose Milja from 2005 was about a father returning home. (source: Finnish Film Foundation)

 

German director Wim Wenders is currently preparing his new film The Palermo Shooting, which is set for a September 17 start in the director's native Düsseldorf before moving to Sicily. His first feature-length project since 2005's Don't Come Knocking is about a Düsseldorf photographer who, after going through a crisis and leaving everything he owns behind, finally finds the beauty of life and love in Palermo on Sicily. The photographer will be played by one of Düsseldorf's most famous sons: Campino, the singer of Die Toten Hosen. The film should be ready for a release in Germany in 2008. (source: kino zeit)

 

Shooting started on the new Dutch film Bloedbroeders (lit. Blood Brothers) last week. The psychological thriller is the feature debut of director Arno Dierickx, who previously directed several works for Dutch TV. The screenplay of the film is from Bert Bouma and Jan Bernard Bussemaker and takes a true story that shook the Netherlands in the 1960s as its base. 18-year-old Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen, the son of the late director Willem van de Sande Bakhuyzen (Ik omhels je met duizend armen / A Thousand Kisses), stars. The film tells the story of Simon, who would do anything to become friends with the rich Van Riebeeck brothers. Committing a murder together might just be the bonding experience they need. Bloedbroeders will be filmed over 21 days and will be released in January 2008. It co-stars Sander van Amsterdam, Derk Stenver and Erik van Heijningen. (source: european-films.net)

 

Successful Italian novelist and screenwriter Federico Moccia will direct the new film with local swimming champion-turned-pin-up Raoul Bova (La finestra di fronte / Facing Window) called Scusa ma ti chiamo amore (Lit. Sorry But I'll Call You My Love). Moccia wrote the hugely successful teen drama Tre metri sopra il cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven), based on his own novel. It made an overnight star of teen heartthrob Riccardo Scamarcio, who also starred in its follow-up Ho voglia di te (lit. I Want You), which had a stellar €13.7 million take at the boxoffice earlier this year to become the second most visited Italian film of 2007 after only Manuale d'amore 2, which also starred Scamarcio. For his return to the director's chair after some work in the 1980s and 1990s, Moccia will tell the tale of a 37-year-old (Bova) who falls in love with a teenager. Shooting starts this month. (source: cinecittà)