Venice is the latest set for the production of Ripley which, after several films, is now being made as a TV series, produced by Lotus Production for the US broadcaster Showtime, directed by Steven Zaillian, the Oscar winning writer of Schindler’s List.
The series is, of course, a remake of Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) with Matt Damon as the ambiguous main character, while the 1955 novel which inspired it was also the basis for Plein Soleil(1960) directed by René Clément and starring Alain Delon. Tom Ripley, the lead character in Patricia Highsmith’s novels (published in Italy by Bompiani) will now have the face of Andrew Scott, known to the public as Professor Moriarty in the TV series Sherlock.
His co-stars are also different: Johnny Flynn is Dickie Greenleaf, played by Jude Law in the 1999 movie, while Dakota Fanning replaces Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood.
The story is based on the Highsmith novels: at a reception in New York City, young Tom Ripley meets the magnate Herbert Greenleaf who, taking him for a college friend of his son, asks him to go to Italy where Dickie has been living for several years and convince him to return to America. However, once in Italy, Tom begins a series of scams, frauds, even murders, culminating in his theft of Dickie’s identity.
The Ripley set inaugurates the season for film and audio-visual productions in Venice, which was recently seen in the TV drama Non mi lasciare, starring Vittoria Puccini, broadcast by RAI. The production filmed in St. Mark’s square and beneath the arches at the Caffè Florian with one hundred extras dressed in 1950s costume and should remain in the lagoon for at least a month. The locations are mostly palace interiors, in the Nomboli area of San Polo and campo San Maurizio, San Samuele, the Accademia, Ca’ Widmann, the hotel Danieli, the Grand Canal, the Frari area and Santa Lucia train station.
In September, the production was in Lazio, in Anzio, shooting mostly on the town’s western coastline and on the Molo Innocenziano, the unfinished cement block beneath the Imperial Villa.
The islands of the Campania archipelago will also feature, especially Capri, with sets in Villa Torricella, the sumptuous residence overlooking the Bay of Marina Grande, and Ischia, as will the Amalfi Coast with the small borgos of Atrani and Maiori, Pozzuoli Harbour and, above all, Naples. The city was already the setting for shooting in October 2021, in rione Sanità, between vico Cimitile and via Fonseca, two small streets in the ancient Stella neighbourhood; and in the stretch of portico on via dei Tribunali, where it crosses vico Fico a Purgatorio, near the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio ad Arco, whose burial area has many niches with the so-called “anime pezzentelle”, the remains of people who died from plague or cholera. Other locations included Monteoliveto, in piazza Santa Maria la Nova, and Capodimonte between the tondo di Capodimonte and corso Amedeo di Savoia.
The production should move to Palermo in the spring.
The 8 episodes in the first season will broadcast in the United States in Autumn 2022 and become available in Italy the following year.
(Monica Sardelli)