Italian director Paolo Virzì (“Human Capital,” “Like Crazy”) has begun shooting in Rome on apocalyptic drama “Siccità,” set amid a protracted drought in the Italian capital and featuring an A-list local cast comprising Monica Bellucci, Sara Serraiocco (“Counterpart”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”).
Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa are producing for Wildside, the Fremantle-owned company behind “The Young Pope,” “My Brilliant Friend” and “We Are Who We Are.” Vision Distribution, which is jointly operated by Comcast’s Sky Italia and five prominent Italian production companies, will distribute in Italy with plans for a theatrical release.
The film follows a group of characters from all walks of life who are tied by a single tragic, mocking thread as each one seeks their redemption.
The story treatment was penned by Paolo Giordano (“We Are Who We Are”) in tandem with Virzì, whose English-language “The Leisure Seeker,” with Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren, was released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics.
The screenplay for “Siccità,” which means drought in English, was co-written by Francesca Archibugi (“The Leisure Seeker”), Francesco Piccolo (“My Brilliant Friend,” the series) with Giordano and Virzì.
Bellucci recently starred in Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” which is on the Oscar best international feature film shortlist. She previously worked with Virzì in “N: Napoleon and Me.”
Besides Bellucci, Serraiocco and Orlando, the “Siccità” ensemble cast also includes Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”); Elena Lietti, who will soon be seen in Nanni Moretti’s “Three Floors”; Claudia Pandolfi (“Baby”); and Tommaso Ragno (“Fargo”).
