Tornatore unveils 'Baaria'

Monica Bellucci stars in Sicilian epic

By NICK VIVARELLI

Sales will kick off in Cannes on Giuseppe Tornatore’s big-budget “Baaria,” a personal epic spanning three generations of intricate life in a Sicilian village and starring an ensemble cast comprising Monica Bellucci, among other A-list Italo thesps.

Franco-Tunisian maven Tarak Ben Ammar’s Quinta Communications, which is co-producing, will be selling “Baaria” on the Croisette.

“Baaria” is Sicilian dialect for Tornatore’s native Bagheria, a suburb of Palermo being meticulously reconstructed on a massive set outside Tunis where pic is currently shooting. Completion is expected in 2009.

Budgeted at $30 million and co-produced by Medusa and Quinta, “Baaria” is being touted by Medusa topper Giampaolo Letta as having many elements of Tornatore’s smash hit “Cinema Paradiso,” “albeit on a grander scale,” he told Daily Variety.

Medusa will distribute in Italy where pic will curiously go out in two versions: one in Sicilian dialect and another in Italian.

Tight-lipped Tornatore is describing “Baaria” as “a very funny comedy with a melancholy touch.” Tale is understood to revolve around a couple in the Sicilian village between the 1930s and the 1970s, while also touching on the lives of many of its other inhabitants, with some 200 characters in play.

The score is being composed by Ennio Morricone.