Fox sets up Italian production arm
21st Century Fox to nurture 'Flower of Evil'
By NICK VIVARELLI

ROME -- Fox is going local in Italy with the launch of a long-gestating film production shingle called 21st Century Fox.
Outfit's first film will be "Vallanzasca -- The Flower of Evil," a biopic about Milanese mobster Renato Vallanzasca who in the 1970s carried out a string of robberies, kidnappings, murders and prison escapes that made him a quasi-mythical outlaw.
The $12 million noir, to be helmed by Michele Placido ("Crime Novel"), is produced by Fox in association with Italo producer Elide Melli's Cosmo shingle. The pic, based on Vallanzasca's autobiography, starts shooting in Milan in January.
Italo thesp Kim Rossi Stuart will play the notorious mobster, who received four life sentences and has spent 39 years behind bars after.
Paz Vega will play Vallanzasca's wife, and German thesp Moritz Bleibtreu ("Soul Kitchen") is a fellow gang member.
Fox Italy topper Osvaldo De Santis is keeping mum for the moment on what other projects are in the pipeline. All output will be distributed in Italy by Fox.
Finally, 30 years after Bernardo Bertolucci's 'Luna,' and several experiences distributing Italian movies, Fox is back investing in Italian production," De Santis said.
Fox's investment in Italo production follows similar moves in recent years by Warner Bros. and Universal.

Variety





Kim Rossi Stuart will play a gangster

July 10, 2009

3 years after Romanzo Criminale, beautiful Kim Rossi Stuart returns again in a role of gangster. According to Inrocks l' actor could incarnate Renato Vallanzasca, especially known to have terrorized the Italians in Milan of the years 1970. In it Stuart finds the realizer Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and will thus play the part of the gangster known for his various exactions containing murder, flights, sequestrations, escapes? l' public opinion was very shared with regard to its personality ambiguous between true godfather and Robin of Wood. Finally condemned to perpetuity (it is still in prison), it will try several times of s' to escape without success? Kim Rossi Stuart will thus take the features of this gangster to the pleasant physique (which was worth the nickname of Rene Beautiful to him), as from next November.

thehollywood.info




July 7, 2009

Kim Rossi Stuart returns to crime for Placido

In November, Michele Placido will start shooting a film on the life of Renato Vallanzasca, a notorious criminal who terrorized Milan in the 1970s.

Vallanzasca, known as "handsome Renè" for his indisputable appeal, will be played Kim Rossi Stuart, who starred in Romanzo Criminale, which Placido also directed.

"I met him, and he has incredible charisma,” said Rossi Stuart of Vallanzasca, who worked on the script with the director. "He is intelligent, articulate. A man who understood and anticipated the role of the media. If Vallanzasca had been born in different circumstances, if he’d had different opportunities, who knows what he could have become. Instead, he’s spent 38 of his 58 years in jail."

Camillo de Marco

http://www.cineuropa.org/newsdetail.asp … tID=109588




Placido and Rossi Stuart reteam on 'Il Fiore del Male'

7 July 2009 | From ioncinema

For a good decade, they were stuck with contemporary melodramas that in some cases, came across as bad soap opera television. Since Gomorrah and Il Divo strong-armed their way into theaters, box office tallies in Italy have most likely changed for the better, and perhaps to an outsider like myself, it meant a return to form for Italian film in general. Expect to see major funding for the next vague of films to go towards film depicting political crimes and mafia crime dramas and perhaps, Michele Placido is among the first to have hit the jackpot receiving the backing 20th Century Fox Italia for his next project. Cineruopa.org confirms that production for Il Fiore del Male will begin later this year on a biopic on a notorious criminal named Renato Vallanzasca.

Placido re-teams with one of Italy's best actor in Kim Rossi Stuart, who starred in Placido's Romanzo Criminale. Stuart has been involved with the project since late 2007, and has worked the script with the director. Like several other films that profile life long criminals, I expect the film to span several decades.

According to Wiki description, Vallanzasca is a notorious Italian mobster from the region of Milan who was a powerful figure in the Milanese underworld during the 1970s. Following numerous robberies, kidnappings, murders, and many years as a fugitive, he is currently serving four consecutive life sentences with an additional 260 years in prison. He is a local celebrity in Milan, famous for appealing to part of the public opinion for his image linked to the "myth of the bandit". The guy is so celebrated that he even has his own blog.

Translation of the title would be "Flower of Evil" (not to be confused with Claude Chabrol's recent film), and shooting is pegged for a November start.

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0867542/