Italy’s True Colours has taken international sales on “Perfect Strangers” director Paolo Genovese’s new movie, a comedy drama titled “The First Day of My Life.”
The Rome-based sales company will be launching pre-sales at the upcoming online EFM market on Genovese’s latest concept pic, which has echoes of Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Based on Genovese’s novel of the same title, which was a bestseller in Italy, “The First Day of My Life” revolves around four characters on the brink of taking their lives who make a pact with a stranger with supernatural powers, played by “The Great Beauty” star Toni Servillo.
The mystery man gives them a chance to travel forward in time to see for a week how their friends and relatives would react to their deaths and what the world would be like without them. On the last day of the week, the four potential suicides have the option of deciding whether to live or jump off a bridge.
Besides Servillo, who more recently starred in Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” the “First Day of My Life” cast also comprises Italian A-listers Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”) and Margherita Buy (“Three Floors”), rising talent Sara Serraiocco (“Salvo”) and first-time thesp Gabriele Cristini.
“The First Day of My Life” is the fourth feature by Genovese handled by True Colours, following smash hit “Perfect Strangers,” which has travelled widely and has been remade in a record-breaking 18 countries, most recently in Lebanon. Then came “The Place” and “Superheroes,” which have both been successfully sold worldwide.
The pic’s screenwriting team is the same as “Perfect Strangers.” Along with Genovese, it includes his longtime collaborators Paolo Costella, Rolando Ravello and Isabella Aguilar.
“The First Day of My Life,” which is currently in post, is produced by Lotus Production, a Leone Film Group Company, and Silvio Berlusconi-owned Medusa Film, which will also handle its yet-to-be scheduled Italian theatrical release.
