EXCLUSIVE: Lucaville Global, the nascent outfit run by former Anonymous Content international boss David Davoli, has launched a JV with Italian indie Titanus Production and is developing four projects including one with Lawrence Bender.
The deal involves the JV company, Lucaville Italy, taking a minority equity stake in Titanus and vice versa. The pair will now develop projects together using IP from 120-year-old Titanus’ vast library. Titanus will offer up production and financing infrastructure and Lucaville Global will source projects and talent from the U.S. and across the international marketplace, while also providing packaging, financing, strategy and distribution expertise.
On the development docket is a reimagining of Dino Risi’s cult classic The Treasure of San Gennaro, a high-octane heist comedy set in Naples, produced by Pulp Fiction’s Bender, an eight time Oscar winner, with Kevin Brown (Trumbo). Lucaville Italy is also developing a psychological thriller based on Dario Argento’s directorial debut The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and a serialized reboot of Palermo Milan, a cross-European action drama following a security detail escorting a key ‘Ndrangheta informant.
Meanwhile, Lucaville Global is bringing its adaptation of Norwegian coming-of-age drama series Kids in Crime to the JV, which is being remade as an Italian feature film.
The deal was signed by Titanus Co-CEOs Massimo Veneziano and Maria Grazia Saccà with Davoli.
Davoli left Anonymous Content last year and unveiled Lucaville Global soon after. Based in New York, Lucaville Global’s aim is to work with filmmakers, creators and independents to build international projects with the goal of “moving beyond traditional production models.” Lucaville Global said the Titanus deal is the start of a “broader mandate to build equity-based creative partnerships across multiple territories.” At Anonymous, Davoli, a former Bron executive and entertainment lawyer, built up operations outside the U.S. including The Hack producer AC Chapter One in the UK, a JV with France’s Federation and Anonymous Content Brazil.
Davoli said: “Titanus is one of the oldest and most prestigious studios in Italy, with a catalogue of classic Italian cinema that is genuinely extraordinary. The opportunity to work with Massimo, Maria Grazia, and the Lombardo family to unlock that catalogue and develop it into premium content for global audiences is one of the most meaningful of my career, and one I am deeply honored to be part of. To be working in Italy, tapping into one of the richest cinematic cultures in the world, makes this all the more significant. It is precisely the kind of partnership Lucaville Global was founded to builld.”
Veneziano and Saccà added: “David brings an extraordinary breadth of international expertise, relationships, and strategic thinking to the table. Together we will develop content that is authentically Italian and designed to travel.”
News of the deal comes on the first day of the Series Mania forum in Lille.
