Eagle, Future tie to 'Amore' trio

Pics mark company's first go at domestic theatrical prod'n

By DAVID ROONEY

ROME -- Italian production-distribution outfit Eagle Pictures has pacted with U.K.-based financier Future Film Group on "Amore Mio," a trilogy of features that share the theme of love. The pics, which mark the Italian company's first foray into domestic theatrical production, will begin shooting this summer.

Collectively budgeted at around 8 million euros ($7 million), the three Italian-language features will shoot back to back near Lago Maggiore in Italy's Piedmont region.

Giovanna Gagliardo directs "The Black Flower," a drama set in 1913, inspired by an Arthur Schnitzler story. Spanish helmer Jordi Frades will direct "Double Room 22," a mystery set in the 1950s about an amnesiac woman suspected of murdering her philandering husband.

While the first two features focus on human relationships, third part of the trilogy, "On the Threshold of Mystery," deals with the love between man and God. Rodolfo Bisatti, a graduate of Ermanno Olmi's filmmaking school, directs the contempo drama about the passage between life and death.

Casting of Italian, British and Spanish actors is expected to be announced soon. The films will shoot from mid-August through November and will be released domestically by Eagle in the spring or summer of 2003.