Pic's Venetian bind

'Casanova' screening fuels piracy concerns

By NICK VIVARELLI

'Casanova' shot around Venice.

ROME -- Piracy fears surrounding the Sept. 3 world preem of Lasse Hallstrom's "Casanova" at the Venice Film Festival are causing friction between Buena Vista Intl. and local pols clamoring for an outdoor screening of the period romancer in the lagoon city where it was shot.

Touchstone pic, starring Heath Ledger as the famed Venetian seducer, will bow out of competition as a gala in the Palazzo del Cinema, followed by a big bash.

Ledger and co-stars Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons and Lena Olin are expected to attend, as are producers Mark Gordon, Betsy Beers and Leslie Holleran.

Venice Mayor Massimo Cacciari and other local pols want ordinary Venetians to get a chance to see "Casanova." They expected the pic to screen at the Campo San Polo, an outdoor arena where many of the fest's titles unspool for the locals.

"Venice participated generously in the shooting of this film. If it won't screen in Campo San Polo, we will consider that an insult," Italian papers quoted Cacciari as saying on Thursday.

Instead, Buena Vista is proposing to show the film to the public inside the fest's Palagalileo.

"We said we'd gladly show the film to Venetians," Buena Vista Intl. Italy topper Paul Zonderland told Daily Variety. "But we want to have it screen in an entirely antipiracy-controlled situation, because the film is being released (in the U.S.) at the end of December.

"We have to protect a multimillion-dollar investment from piracy. That's our only issue. We are very proud to share the film with the Venice community," Zonderland added.