Rome’s Resurgent City of Film Prepares for Future Glory
Once home to Fellini and such Hollywood classics as “Ben-Hur,” the fabled Cinecittà Studios is retooling for 21st-century production.
By Nick Vivarelli
The gods of cinema are reviving Cinecittà Studios as a hot spot for international filmmaking. Or, if not the gods, maybe the popes?
The sprawling studio, 20 minutes from the center of Rome, once known as “Hollywood on the Tiber” in its “Ben-Hur” and “La Dolce Vita” heyday, is evolving into a new capital of cinema and high-end television. Among recent productions that have shot there are Netflix’s upcoming “The Pope” and HBO’s “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope,” for which the entire central aisle of St. Peter’s has been replicated on the lot.
These papal extravaganzas signal a renaissance for the famed studio. That resurgence began with the restoration of government ownership in 2017, under former minister Dario Franceschini, and is now accelerating under new management.
Cinecittà’s relaunch is the central plank of Italy’s concerted effort to regain cinematic glory and a prominent spot on the global entertainment industry map. Culture minister Alberto Bonisoli says the Italian government sees itself as a driver, having a positive impact on the industry at large.
“Cinecittà represents a crucial component of our plans because we need a physical space where we can make sure that several [film industry] activities are happening concurrently,” Bonisoli says. “These range from a revamp of our cinema archives, including film restoration, to revitalizing production with the addition of larger soundstages. Cinecittà must have adequate production capacity when we offer our services to international productions.”
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During the weeks I spent shooting in the spectacular Sistine Chapel built in Cinecittà, many times I asked the driver to go home so I could walk around by myself in the backlots, visit sets or the museum, or just walk in the middle of those iconic buildings. In those moments I’d say to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m filming here!’ The subway is right in front of the main gate, so in 20 minutes I was back home. Happy days.”
Fernando meirelles - Director, "The Pope"
The government’s support has already had an impact at the studio. Line producer Enzo Sisti, who most recently worked at Cinecittà on Hulu’s “Catch-22,” says, “Everyone [at Cinecittà] is more motivated. There is a can-do attitude and a sense of renewal in the air.”
Now the fabled facility, located on 99 acres of public land, is fully back in public hands and in the midst of a radical two-year overhaul, including upgrades to the 19 existing sound stages, new state-of-the-art stage space and electrical and broadband cable rewirings.
Cinecittà’s backlot, which was filled with disused sets, was recently cleared out to make way for a new set for RAI and AMC’s “The Name of the Rose” TV series starring John Turturro: a 13th century abbey with a cobblestone courtyard and other meticulously crafted set-pieces. The series was shot almost entirely on-site, using gigantic greenscreens.
George Clooney, wearing his director’s hat for “Catch-22,” moved shooting to Cinecittà after wrapping exterior lensing in Sardinia. Teatro 15 was used to shoot interiors for World War II aerial battle scenes set inside a B-25 bomber. The shoot used both greenscreen and grayscreen techniques for visual effects.
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We all know that Cinecitta is an iconic studio, where many of the masterpieces of cinema were made. What we didn’t know is that it is still a fantastic facility run by an excellent and very helpful team. We had a great experience shooting ‘Catch-22.’ It’s the best place to work in Italy! ”
Richard Brown - Producer ‘Catch-22’
The weather in Rome was so scorching on the first day of shooting, recounts Sisti, that he was told, “it’s too hot inside the cockpit, we can’t work here.” Cinecittà’s new management immediately addressed the issue, solving it so completely that “the Americans asked us to turn the air conditioning off because it was too cold!” he says. “That would not have happened in the past.”
Sisti, a veteran point man for Hollywood in Italy, underlines the “right-on-time” delivery of a life-sized Sistine Chapel set for Fernando Meirelles’ “The Pope,” created with groundbreaking digital-tattoo technique that vividly re-created Michelangelo’s frescoes. For HBO’s “Pope” series, Cinecittà re-created the entire central aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Sisti also notes the studio is now headed by a former producer, Roberto Cicutto, who “knows and understands the day-to-day needs of those who make movies.”
Cicutto calls Cinecittà’s renaissance a direct consequence of Italy’s tax incentives, which were recently upped to 30% of eligible production costs with a €20 million ($22.7 million) cap per production company. “As a producer I know that once I’m in a location it’s in my interest to stay in the same country with the same crew and also use the sound stages,” he says.
Line producer Marco Valerio Pugini says such swift, no-hassle Italian production incentives, providing immediate cash-back benefits, are helping lure filmmakers from the U.S. and elsewhere.
“Whereas Italy until recently was mostly used for limited ‘postcard shoots,’ it’s now starting to attract productions for the bulk of their shoots,” Pugini says. Among recent productions Pugini has handled, he was Italian line producer on the Michael Bay-directed “6 Underground.”
Bay’s big-budget actioner was based at Cinecittà even when it was shooting in Florence, Siena and Taranto. Bay, who shot a key action scene at Cinecittà’s legendary Teatro 5 (once Fellini’s favorite) used prosthetics and VFX provided by Makinarium, which is based on the lot.
“At first Bay was skeptical about doing the effects here,” says Cinecittà director of production operations Domenico Pinuccio D’Arino, “but when he saw test shots he was impressed.”
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Whereas Italy until recently was mostly used for limited ‘postcard shoots,’ it’s now starting to attract productions for the bulk of their shoots. ”
Marco Valerio Pugini - Italian Line Producer, ‘6 Underground.’
Besides upgrades and infrastructure expansion, the revamp also comprises cutting edge post-production and dubbing services, digital restoration and a 35mm film processing lab catering to celluloid die-hards such as Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino.
The Ancient Rome permanent set, built more than a decade ago for HBO’s “Rome,” is being consolidated and expanded with construction of a fully functional 1,000-seat Roman amphitheater for live events, suitable for parties and junkets.
Craftsmen, costume makers and lighting and VFX artists whose workspaces have been scattered around the lot are being relocated into a large but compact cluster. These renovated spaces, including specially equipped labs, will also be home base for a production skills training program that is an integral component of the studios new regime. Here the veteran artists will impart their know-how to novices.
A production hub for videogames, with a motion-capture and VR studio, is in the works. It's scheduled to open just as a dedicated festival called Romevideogamelab returns to Cinecittà in May. The 2018 fest had more than 10,000 visitors. The studio lot is also open to the public for visits and its venues can be rented for events.
In addition, the vast Luce archives are available to filmmakers working at Cinecittà, should they need footage.
“We want to maintain the DNA of this place,” says Cicutto, “and continue to provide topnotch set-building and other crafts Cinecittà is known for, but also offer new technologies and the possibility of doing post-production here.”
