SCILLA (RC) – AtAVP Summit of Scilla – which ended with an extremely positive outcome, with 44 protagonists of the sector from France, Great Britain, the United States and Italy compared in 14 meetings – a panel was dedicated to New frontiers of storytelling and in particular to national stories for an international audience. Among the interventions that of Federico Scardamaglia (CEO of Leone Cinematographic Company), protagonist of a success story like that of Lions of Sicilythe series directed by Paolo Genovese and inspired by the historical novel by Stefania Auci.
“The Lions of Sicily – Scardamaglia tells us – is a large, out-of-scale production, with a huge budget, thanks to Disney who believed in the project, we had an artistic and technical cast of the highest level. It was a huge success in Italy and around the world, based on the book. Now you are thinking about The winter of the Lions, the sequel to the saga, the book has sold 750 thousand copies in Italy and has been translated into 40 countries. There are two more generations to tell, Ignazio and Ignazziddo and there is the story of Donna Franca Florio, symbol of that world, an example of style and beauty”.
Directed by Paolo Genovese, who is also creative producer, the eight-episode series is produced by Francesco and Federico Scardamaglia for Compagnia Leone Cinematografica and by Raffaella Leone and Marco Belardi for Lotus Production, a Leone Film Group company. Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo signed the screenplay. The cast includes Michele Riondino in the role of Vincenzo Florio, Miriam Leone in that of Giulia Portalupi, Donatella Finocchiaro in that of Giuseppina, Vinicio Marchioni in the role of Paolo Florio and Eduardo Scarpetta in the role of Ignazio Florio.
Among the other projects of the company, which has a long family history (in the 70s it was founded by Federico’s grandfather, Elio, together with Fellini to produce The clowns), there is a script about the controversial broker Massimo Bochicchio, who died tragically in an accident on the Salaria, leaving a hole of around one billion euros with VIP customers. “We are collaborating with the widow who has not yet released any statement.” So The imperfect ones by Federica De Paolis, a novel that tells the complexity of the world of cosmetic surgery, “a topic little addressed by Italian cinema on which the screenwriter Barbara Petronio is working”. Another project is the new film by Vincenzo Marraa brilliant comedy that goes against the trend of the line followed by this author.
Scardamaglia, who in Scilla invited fellow producers to tackle rarely practiced genres, such as rom-com (“which has a very strong and transversal audience”) and the family, focuses on literary transpositions. “In the book the quality of the story is tested, broadcasters and the public already know what they are talking about and this helps a lot. Another winning path is that of the biographies of great people, singers, stylists, actors”.
“There are success stories that need to grow and there is a boundless audience of audiences that need to escape – reflects Scardamaglia – we cyclically experience periods of hardship but for the top product there is always a privileged path, I am optimistic”.
