Where it was filmed 'Il Gattopardo - The series'

The Leopard is the six-episode series for Netflix series based on the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, produced by Indiana Production and Moonage Pictures.

Director and producer: who made the series?

The cast includes Kim Rossi Stuart as Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, Benedetta Porcaroli as Concetta, Deva Cassel and Saul Nanni as Angelica and Tancredi. The cast also includes Paolo Calabresi, Francesco Colella, Astrid Meloni and Greta Esposito. It was directed by Tom Shankland, supported by Giuseppe Capotondi (episode 4) and Laura Luchetti (episode 5). The series – created and written by Richard Warlow, who executive produced with Benji Walters - rediscovers the modernity in the story of the Prince of Salina and his family, which is the story of Italy of yesterday and today. The director of photography was Nicolaj Bruel. The costumes were created by Carlo Poggioli and Edoardo Russo, the sets by Dimitri Capuani. The original music is by Paolo Buonvino.

'The Leopard': the new transposition of Tomasi di Lampedusa's masterpiece

Based on one of the greatest Italian novels of all time, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's masterpiece, The Leopard is an epic, surprising and sensual tale, set in Sicily during the turmoil of 1860. The series has an illustrious precedent in the 1963 film directed by Luchino Visconti The Leopard which starred Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale. The series explores themes that have been handed down for centuries: power, love and the cost of progress, with a modern universal perspective.

Over four months of filming began in Rome in April 2023 and also took place in Sicily (Palermo, Syracuse, Catania) and Turin.

Locations of Sicily: from the Cannizzola badlands to Ortigia

The carriage ride that the Salina family takes to the fictional mountain village of Donnafugata to escape the heat of Palermo, when the prince compares the surrounding nature to his state of mind with "deserted mountains like desperation" and a "funereal countryside", was filmed in the desert like landscape of the Cannizzola badlands.  Donnafugata was created in piazza Duomo of Ortigia, the island that is the oldest part of Syracuse, which was completely transformed into a small rural village of the 19^th century with set elements and beaten earth covering the pavements.

The streets and squares of Palermo are also present: Garibaldi’s men parade victoriously in the area of via Maqueda in the octagonal square called Quattro Canti. Palazzo Comitini in Palermo, especially a large room decorated with stucco, frescoes with a floor of Sicilian majolica hosted the many scenes of breakfasts and lunches of the family at Villa Salina with the imposing central dining table; small seating groups and plants were placed at the back of the room. Villa Wirz, the 16^th-century residence where Tancredi lives, is also in Palermo. Palazzo Biscari in Catania was the setting for the liberation ball. Villa Valguarnera in Bagheria was another location.

Interiors: Cinecittà Studios and Frascati

The interiors were filmed mostly in Rome (Cinecittà studios): the fabrics of the villas and palaces were chosen to be lived-in and dusty to symbolize the decadence of the nobility of the time. Settings were often created by filming in several places and edited together. Almost all the locations were furnished entirely by the production, and brought to life with objects that tell the story of the characters (including plants and flowers, as the Prince of Salina was a botany enthusiast). Villa Parisi in Frascati was the setting for the dinner scene with the Sedara family in the Palazzo di Donnafugata. The historic centre of nearby Tivoli also provided a location.

Filming in Turin: period costumes and the Risorgimento

Locations in Turin included: outdoor scenes in piazza Carignano, via Carlo Alberto, piazza Palazzo di Città, where extras in period costumes and 19^th-century horse-drawn carriages were placed and parco Ai Caduti Dei Lager Nazisti. Interior scenes were shot inside the Museo Nazionale del Risorgimento (which opened the hall of the Chamber of Deputies of the Subalpine Parliament), Palazzo Carignano, Palazzo Birago Di Borgaro, Palazzo Cisterna.