As I rightly predicted yesterday, Michele Placido’s biopic on infamous Italian criminal Renato Vallanzasca will indeed be heading to the Lido. Announced at a press conference by 20th Century Fox Italy, Vallanzasca would receive an out of competition slot at the Venice Film Fest, which means Fortissimo Films could very well transfer the title for a TIFF premiere and further market sales.
Formerly titled “Il Fiore del Male” and inspired by the book of the same name, scripted by Gerardo Amato, Michele Placido, Andrea Purgatori and Kim Rossi Stuart (this reunites Placido and Stuart) , the pic is now going by the name of the principle person that is involved. This is based on the life of Renato Vallanzasca (played by Rossi Stuart), known as handsome Renè a notorious criminal who terrorized Milan in the 1970s. He has spent 38 of his 58 years in jail. Here’s an set pic below you can see Stuart on the right and on the left we have Moritz Bleibtreu (does he speak Italian?). Paz Vega also toplines the picture.
The way it might have worked in the past is that known criminals were made legend and wouldn’t make it to the screen until well after they would be dead as a doornail, but now I guess there is a new trend in not waiting past a criminal’s expiry date as seen with recent examples such as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson followed by Olivier Assayas’ Carlos.
