Italian studios Cinecittà are no longer pursuing their main projects.
The mythical production site of Rome will gain 76 acres of land adjacent to the studios where it planned to build 8 more sets and expand its backlot.
The land controlled by the Italian public development bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), which agreed two years ago to sell it to Cinecittà. However, the case is no longer moving forward and has been confusing because two acres of land resulted. involve archaeological remains.
“Now we will continue to be the old Cinecittà,” Chiara Sbargia, president of Cinecittà, told Screen.
The original deal would have noted that CDP was an investor in Cinecittà. Sbargia explained that control of the bank had been replaced since the deal was first closed and that the bank was no longer as willing to invest in state-owned entities. The sole shareholder of Cinecittà is the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Founded in 1937, Cinecittà has 19 sound stages and is the installation in Italy. In 2021, Cinecittà secured a €300 million loan from the European Union’s Post-Pandemic Recovery Fund (PNRR) to revitalise and expand the studios.
Cinecittà had planned to invest some of the cash in five new studios at its existing site, as well as upload 8 more studios on the CDP grounds next to the studios.
Cinecittà will now be in the construction of the five new studios on its site, bringing its total studio footprint to 24. It will also renovate several of its existing studios.
Sbargia, who is also president of the Italian Association of Audiovisual Producers (APA), said the resolution to expand the studios has to do with symptoms of a slowdown in foreign production in recent months.
She said productions remain keen to shoot in Italy and under pressure that French-Tunisian manufacturer and Eagle Pictures chairman Tarak Ben Ammar plans to build new production studios in Rome that she hopes to open in 2024. Sbargia said there are also plans to build a closed studio. to Naples, while other local budgets in Italy seek to fund studios to attract productions.
Productions have flocked to Cinecittà in recent years, attracted by its amenities and also by Italy’s generous tax credits that have increased from 30% to 40% following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The studios are operating at full capacity. The Italian government is in the process of reforming its tax credit.
Sbargia said Cinecittà has not been affected by moves through American actors or screenwriters, as most productions filmed at the studios are Italian or European.
The studio is lately presenting Roland Emmerich’s gladiatorial series, Those About to Die for Peacock, which has a predominantly Italian and European cast, Luca Guadagnino’s Fremantle-backed adaptation of William S’s Queer. Burroughs, starring Daniel Craig, and Joe Wright’s Mussolini M series, which is produced through Sky Studios and Fremantle-backed company The Apartment in collaboration with Pathé.
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