Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian director who won an Oscar this year for the film Great Beauty, plans to make a mini-series Young Dad.
In his new project, Sorrentino is going to tell the whole world the story of Lenny Belardo, the fictional first pontiff from America. The name of the actor who will play the role of the Pope in eight episodes of the series has not yet been revealed. However, some sources claim that Young Papa will star in the Vatican, Africa, Italy and the USA.
“Paolo Sorrentino chose us for the filming of his first series,” explains Andrea Scrosati, vice president of Sky. The series will be released by the Wildside film company, whose co-owner said that Sorrentino’s decision to withdraw the series will greatly affect all Italian television. He also compared the director’s fictional character to The Sopranos Clan hero Tony Soprano, Breaking Bad Walter White and House of Cards Frank Underwood. ) “These characters stand out for their versatility, so the plot develops horizontally. This is the only way to understand them, the conflicts they were drawn into, and the experiences associated with these conflicts, ”explained the owner of Wildslide.
“Dad, who was invented by Sorrentino, is the person you met at least once in your life.”
Sorrentino received an Oscar statuette in the Best Foreign Film nomination for his cinematography Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), as well as the Golden Globe Award. Critics call this director almost the most talented and successful filmmaker in Italy, who declared himself in the 21st century, and many even say that Sorrentino is the future of Italian cinema. Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, but in the film industry he first identified himself closer to the end of the 90s, when he worked as an assistant director of the picture. Sorrentino later decided that directing wasn’t his business and went into scriptwriting. In 1998, he, together with Antonio Capuano, wrote the script for the film “Naples Dust” (“Polvere di Napoli”), then took part in the creation of the plot “Love has no limits” (“L'amore non ha confini”) , but as a screenwriter, he earned a name for himself after the tape “Extra Man” (“L'uomo in più”).
The first English-language film of this talented director was the film “Wherever you are” (“This must be the place”), which was released in 2011. The leading role was invited by the famous actor Sean Penn. Later, this tape was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received quite high marks from critics. This film was awarded the David Donatello Prize precisely for the best screenplay, the idea of which, incidentally, belonged to Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello. It is worth noting that the script for the Oscar-winning film "Great Beauty" was also written by the director and Contarello. In addition to this prestigious award, the tape was awarded at numerous European film festivals for outstanding directing, music and editing.
