The behind-the-scenes stories of famous movies are more or less a trend in the past few years. Paramount+ explored how The Godfather was put together with the limited series The Offer. An upcoming film will explore Sylvester Stallone’s journey in making Rocky for the film I Play Rocky. And now, Variety is reporting that Italy’s Leone Film Group, the producer on the Cannes entry, Paper Tiger, is attempting to develop a film surrounding Sergio Leone’s quest to make his massively acclaimed 1984 gangster film Once Upon a Time in America.
Per Variety, “The film will criss-cross through different time periods, including flashbacks to Sergio Leone’s childhood. It will be set in Rome, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Cannes, which is where Leone first met Arnon Milchan, who produced Once Upon a Time in America and where the epic subsequently premiered to mixed reviews.”
The untitled film is set to be helmed by directorial duo Giuseppe Stasi and Giancarlo Fontana, who broke out with The Bad Guy series on Prime Video. Stasi and Fontana will also be writing the film along with The Bad Guy co-creators Ludovica Rampoldi and Davide Serino.
Sergio Leone’s daughter, Raffaella, who is co-CEO of Leone Film Group, has stated, “It’s basically the story of a man who chases a dream for his entire life. Or, at least, who took 15 years to make a movie and didn’t do anything else until he managed to make it. And it’s told with my father’s irony.” She will be producing with Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, chief strategy officer of Italy’s EssilorLuxottica and president of Ray-Ban.
Paper Tiger is already buzzing at Cannes. According to the official synopsis, the movie stars Miles Teller and Adam Driver as two brothers “entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true.” As they try to navigate their way through an ever more dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves and their family brutally terrorized by the Russian “Mafiya.” Their bond begins to fray, and betrayal — once utterly unthinkable — now becomes all too possible.” Scarlett Johansson co-stars.
In the run-up to the Cannes Film Festival lineup reveal a few weeks ago, Paper Tiger was heavily tipped to be part of the program, but it was notably absent, with Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux saying it was simply due to “contractual issues.” Likely, it had something to do with the film’s distribution, but now Variety reports that Neon has snapped up the rights. They have no less than six movies in contention at Cannes: Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord(starring Sebastian Stan), Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box, and Na Hong-jin’s Hope (which co-stars Michael Fassbender).