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Italy eyes big release for Benigni film

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 03:06 CDT

By Peter Kiefer

ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - Italy is gearing up for an unprecedented rollout of actor/filmmaker Roberto Benigni's highly anticipated new film, "The Tiger and the Snow," his first film since the universally panned "Pinocchio."

The romantic comedy, which stars Benigni, his wife Nicoletta Braschi, French actor Jean Reno and American musician Tom Waits, will have its official release on October 14 with 800 prints. But that number could come close to 1,000 when accounting for regional theaters outside the purview of national box office tracking agency Cinetel.

That will surpasses "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (738 prints) and "Troy" (703 prints) as the largest opening weekend release.

"Benigni is more important to the Italian market than even U.S. films, he is a hit, a blockbuster," said Giancarlo Leone, head of state-owned producer RAI Cinema, whose 01 Distribution arm will release the film in Italy.

"Pinocchio," Benigni's 2002 follow-up to his Oscar-winning 1997 Holocaust heartwarmer "Life Is Beautiful," flopped everywhere outside of his homeland. The $36 million "The Tiger and the Snow" met a lukewarm response following the first press screening in Rome on Tuesday.

In the film, Benigni plays Attilio De Giovanni, a poetry teacher whose seemingly unrequited love for Braschi's character (Vittoria) sends him on a harrowing, goodwill adventure to Baghdad in the lead up to the Iraq War.

While it tackles the politically sensitive topic of the war in Iraq, at the press conference following the film Benigni stressed that polemics were not his goal.

"I realize that there are a number of modern documentaries that go to the head. My film goes to the heart and hits the heart entering into the conscience and the spirit against the war," he said.

The film will be released in France in December but it currently lacks distribution in the United States.

As for the unprecedented opening weekend release, Benigni couldn't help but poke fun. "This film will come out in every theater in Italy without exception," he joked. "We've even talked to the pirates and we have a pirate distribution deal."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

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