The last time we read about Aki Kaurismäki was last year when his fantastic Le Havre was released. For his next project he's heading to Italy and he wants Oscar winning Roberto Benigni to star in it.
What the film will be about and the intentions of having Benigini are unclear at this moment but what we can gather the film will be inspired by 'the tasty wines of Salento'. This is a rather vague description however Salento is part of the Apulia region of Southern Italy which happened to be where the 14th European film festival was hosted which the Finnish Auteur was a guest at. It seems the region has inspired the director which I totally appreciate (I lived nearly 2 years in Campania the neighboring region) but his grasp of the Italian language is only 'tourist' level so for this project to succeed he needs to learn the language better.
Originally Kaurismaki wanted Italian veteran Nanni Morretti (We Have A Pope) who unfortunately did not respond and now all eyes are on Benigni who he described who describes as a career like 'John Wayne with a little Cary Grant'. If this project kicks off which we hope it does it's hard to see what direction the film will go, a film on wines may sound bland however with Life is Beautiful star Benigni onboard you can expect the film will be a mix of drama and crazy comedy.
source: THR
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