Italian directors Marco and Antonio Manetti, a.k.a. the Manetti Bros. and best known for the “Diabolik” franchise, are producing the next film by “Orlando” filmmaker Daniele Vicari. The film, titled “You Get Tired of Killing,” is based on the life of a real-life gangster who grew tired of being in charge of running the Mafia’s dirty business.
Speaking exclusively with Variety at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where they are the subject of a career-spanning retrospective, the directing duo confirmed “You Get Tired of Killing” is in pre-production. The film is being produced by Mompracem, the production company run by the Manettis alongside German sales company Beta Film and actor/producer Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, the son of Italian director Marco Bellocchio.
Vicari, whose previous work includes “Diaz — Don’t Clean Up This Blood,” “Velocità Massima” and Venice Film Festival award-winning “The Human Cargo,” joins a growing talent roster at Mompracem.
Also in pre-production is Andree Lucini’s “Raffaella 2000,” a satire about an internet sensation who emulates Italian showgirl and pop culture icon Raffaella Carrà. The project was previously selected for the Biennale College Cinema, the Venice Film Festival’s talent mentorship scheme for young professionals.
“It’s the story of a cleaner from Romania who lives in Italy and, by chance, becomes a sensation by making videos emulating Raffaella Carrà. So the film will blend the 60s elements of Italian showgirls with the influencer culture of today,” said Marco of the project.
“U.S. Palmese”
Courtesy of Mompracem
On top of two films in pre-production, Mompracem has recently finished post-production on two projects: Lorenzo Pullega’s “Rheingold,” which already has secured Italian distribution with I Wonder Pictures, and the Manetti Brothers’ own next feature, “U.S. Palmese,” which will be distributed by 01 Distribution.
Pullega’s film is a mockumentary about a director who has been commissioned to make a film about the Rhine river in Italy, which shares a name with the German river where Richard Wagner set his musical drama “The Rhinegold.” “We believe Pullega is a visionary who also has great ironic timing and is very funny. ‘Rheingold’ is a movie about the outskirts of the world, places that don’t seem as important but where incredible things happened somehow,” Marco said.
“U.S. Palmese” will be a homecoming for the duo, who shot in their mother’s native town of Palmi. “When we were kids, we went to see an amateur football match in Palmi and saw an old man who said that, if every football fan in this small town got together to raise some money, the local team would be able to afford Maradona.”
“This was a formative memory for us, this crazy old man wanting to collect enough money to buy the best player in the world,” Marco said.
The duo showed a first-look clip of the film during an in-depth career conversation at IFFR, where they spoke at length about the importance of being able to have freedom as filmmakers and producers to work on projects they feel passionate about instead of having to work around what commissioners might be interested in funding.
“We’ve been thinking about this a lot,” said Marco when asked about Mompracem’s ethos as a production company.
Both brothers said the recent death of their friend, veteran producer and Mompracem co-founder Carlo Macchitella, has led them to reevaluate their goals and rethink what kinds of projects they would like to bring into the company. “We are trying to find our way. As producers, we need to be a little more cynical than as directors, but we are currently working with our gut to choose projects that we not only like but believe will work.”
