The latest batch of Italian TV series for the international market is a mix of genres spanning from a new Elena Ferrante adaptation made for Netflix, to two RAI reconstructions of the country’s terrorism-plagued past and Sky’s spaghetti Western “Django.”
Django
This English-language reimagining of the world of “Django,” the cult 1966 Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Western that launched the career of Italian icon Franco Nero, is a Sky Studios and Canal Plus original. The show’s cast includes Noomi Rapace, Nicholas Pinnock and Matthias Schoenaerts. Director Francesca Comencini has called it “a universal story with a narrative that celebrates diversity and minorities.”
Esterno Notte
Marco Bellocchi is in post on this limited TV series from RAI Fiction about the 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists. The veteran helmer previously recounted Moro’s still-mysterious abduction from the viewpoint of one of his captors in the 2005 film “Good Morning, Night.”
The General’s Men
Italy’s Stand by Me and RAI have co-produced “The General’s Men,” the country’s most ambitious reconstruction of the country’s battle against the Red Brigades terrorists to air on RAI this fall. The eight-episode series, directed by Lucio Pellegrini (“The Miracle”), follows the efforts of a special paramilitary unit set up by a high-ranking police official, Gen. Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, played by local A-lister Sergio Castellitto. Teresa Saponangelo (“The Hand of God”) plays Dalla Chiesa’s wife. Los Angeles-based Dynamic Television will launch international sales at Mip TV.
The Lying Life of Adults
This new Elena Ferrante adaptation is a Netflix Italian Original series directed by Neapolitan helmer Edoardo De Angelis (“Indivisible”) with Valeria Golino playing a prominent role. Set in the 1990s, the Ferrante book depicts the transition from childhood to adolescence of a young woman named Giovanna in a divided Naples: the upper-crust Naples, and the Naples of its more vulgar and exciting part of the city where the protagonist’s intriguingly crass aunt Vittoria (Golino) lives.
Prisma
This Amazon Prime Video Italian Original centers on gender identity through the tale of adolescent twins, Marco and Andrea, who challenge norms in different ways. They are followed on this journey with their group of friends who are going through a similar experience. The eight-episode show is set in the city of Latina, just south of Rome, and its surrounding area, which used to be a swamp until the land was drained under fascist rule. The area is now known for modernist architecture. “Prisma” is the brainchild of Ludovico Bessegato, who gained local prominence as showrunner of “Skam Italia,” the Italian adaptation of the Nordic drama that’s made a splash in Italy.
The Rising
This English-language historical drama is being produced by Italy’s Lux Vide and former Hasbro chief content officer Stephen J. Davis. It focuses on what is being described as the human and secular story of Jesus Christ. Daniel Knauf, who is the creator and showrunner of HBO’s “Carnivàle,” is attached as showrunner, while Italy’s Jan Michelini, who broke out directing episodes of Lux’s hit “Medici: Masters of Florence,” will direct.
