Italy’s Leone Film Group — which is in Cannes as a producer of James Grey’s competition entry “Paper Tiger” — is set to make an ambitious origins movie about Sergio Leone’s quest to shoot “Once Upon a Time in America,” the gangster epic that premiered at Cannes in 1984 and is now considered a masterpiece.
“It’s basically the story of a man who chases a dream for his entire life,” Raffaella Leone, who is Sergio Leone’s daughter, told Variety. “Or, at least, who took 15 years to make a movie and didn’t do anything else until he managed to make it. And it’s told with my father’s irony.”
Italian directorial duo Giuseppe Stasi and Giancarlo Fontana — who broke out Prime Video’s dark and comic crime series “The Bad Guy” — are set to helm the yet-to-be-titled “Once Upon a Time in America” origins picture that they are writing with “The Bad Guy” scribe Ludovica Rampoldi.
The film will criss-cross through different time periods, including flashbacks to Sergio Leone’s childhood. It will be set in Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Cannes, which is where Leone first met Arnon Milchan, who produced “Once Upon a Time in America” and where the epic subsequently premiered to mixed reviews.
Raffaella Leone, who is Leone Film Group’s co-CEO, is producing the “Time in America” origins film in tandem with Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, chief strategy officer of Italy’s EssilorLuxottica and president of Ray-Ban. Del Vecchio, who holds a 19% stake in Leone group, will also be in Cannes as part of the “Paper Tiger” delegation.
Other projects in various stages in the Leone Film Group pipeline:
“Bad Boy’s Girl”: The film adaptation of the eponymous saga written by Blair Holde, which boasts more than 200 million readers on the Wattpad platform, is now in post. Produced by Leone’s Lotus Production shingle and Diamond Films, its directed by Spain’s Marçal Forés and stars Michelle Moriarty, Harrison Aston, Jordan Elsass and Lashay Anderson. Leone will be shopping it in Cannes.
“Days of Abandonment”: As previously announced, Penelope Cruz is set to star in this English-language adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s novel of the same name, although Isabel Coixet is no longer attached to direct. Another director is being sought for this film, which is eying an early 2027 start of shooting date.
“Madly” English-language remake: An English-language remake of Italian director Paolo Genovese’s concept comedy “Madly” is in early stages. “Madly” — which is titled “FolleMente” in Italy — depicts a first date between a man and a woman in Rome and features all the voices that live in their brains which oscillate between embarrassment and laughter, each played by a different actor. It scored more than $20 million at the Italian box office.
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