Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar-wai’s Jet Tone Films will handle international rights to “Ennio: The Maestro.” The film is an upcoming documentary about legendary film musician Ennio Morricone, written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
Morricone, who is 91, has more than 500 movie credits to this name including scores for Sergio Leone’s so-called “Dollars Trilogy” – “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Tornatore and Morricone have worked together on 13 films, with their best known effort “Cinema Paradiso” in 1988, which claimed the best foreign language film Oscar. The documentary involves a mix of interviews with film-making partners – including Wong, Quentin Tarantino, Bernardo Bertolucci, Clint Eastwood and Bruce Springsteen – that are intercut with fragments of Morricone’s private life, recordings from Morricone’s world concert tours, clips of classic films scored by Morricone, and previously unseen archival footage of scenes that have made up Morricone’s life.
The film has been in the pipeline for several years, and was once titled “A Glance of Music.” In 2016 it was revealed that producers included Italy’s Piano b produzioni and Romania’s Mandragora Movies and financiers included luxury goods firm Bulgari.
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“Maestro” is instead put together by Piano B produzioni, with co-production companies: Potemkino, Terras, GaGa & Blossoms Island Pictures. Producer and executive producers are Gianni Russo, Gabriele Costa. Producers are Peter De Maegd, San Fu Maltha and Wong. Gaga’s Tom Yoda and Potemkino’s Tom Hameeuw are designated as co-producers.
The film is in post-production and will be ready for a 2020 release. Block 2 Distribution is handling worldwide sales outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories. Block 2 representatives Mireille Van Helm and Antonio Salas will be conducting business out of the Mandala Hotel during the Berlin International Film Festival.