British director Peter Webber (“Girl With a Pearl Earring,” “Hannibal Rising”) is attached to direct an adaptation of Italian psychological thriller “Le Parole Lo Sanno” (“You Will Find the Words”), which is being produced by Rome-based shingle Fenix Entertainment.
Webber, who more recently directed ITV miniseries “Tutankhamun” and high-end Arabic historical skein “Kingdoms of Fire,” said an Oscar-nominated English-language screenwriter is on board to adapt the book by Marco Franzoso. The novel centers around a man with a terminal illness whose chance encounters on a park bench with a woman, who is being abused by her husband, leads to an extreme act.
“It’s going to be a very loose adaptation,” said Webber, adding that he’s “not even sure the gender [of the two main characters] will remain the same” as those in Franzoso’s book. The director noted that “there are also some other elements [not in the book] that we are developing at the moment.” He is hoping to have a first draft of the script in roughly three months.
Webber also noted the film will have an English-speaking central character, and therefore, though set in Italy, the pic will be mostly in English.
Webber said he’s had many conversations about the movie adaptation with Franzoso and has the author’s blessing to “use the central setup and then move the narrative in a very different direction.”
A previous book by Franzoso was loosely adapted by Italian director Saverio Costanzo into the English-language film “Hungry Hearts” starring Alba Rohrwacher and Adam Driver, whose performances in the pic scored best female and male acting awards at the 2014 Venice Film Festival.
The plan is for “You Will Find the Words” to be shot in Italy with an international cast in the spring of 2023. The deal was signed by Webber with Fenix CEO Riccardo Di Pasquale and the film’s executive producer Gabriele Oricchio, who is also part of the company’s management team.
Rome-based Fenix is a young Italian shingle which, besides several local titles, is also a co-producer on Italian director Andrea Pallaoro’s English-language drama “Monica” starring Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Trace Lysette, Emily Browning and Joshua Closein, which recently shot in Ohio.
“I am thrilled with this new prestigious international agreement because Fenix Entertainment’s strategy is to increasingly involve the company on the foreign market,” Di Pasquale said in a statement. “We are certain that Peter Webber will infuse the story with his typically refined and gentle touch.”