(9/21/07)










The exotic Italian town of Genova provides a fresh start for Joe (Colin Firth) and his two young daughters: a family seeking new lives after the sudden death of their mother. Kelly, the 16-year-old, explores the sexy and dangerous underbelly of this mysterious new world, while the youngest, Mary, has just seen the ghost of her mother wandering the streets. A poignant tale of love and forgiveness and a contemporary family ghost story.





Colin Firth
Joe
 Catherine Keener
Michelle
 Hope Davis
dead wife?
 Willa Holland
Kelly
 Perla Haney-Jardine
Mary


















From IndieLondon interview with Michael Winterbottom

And what is the next film?
Michael Winterbottom: We’ve just been filming in Italy, so it’s set in Genoa and Colin Firth is playing a British guy who has been living in America for 20 years. He’s got two daughters, who are 12 and 15, but they’ve been in a car crash with their mother and she has died. It starts just after that, as they leave America and go to Genoa for a year, where he will lecture in university. But they’re sort of in limbo—they’ve left America and their friends and they’re waiting to start their new life in Italy—it’s August and everyone is on holiday, so they have a month before they start just to hang out in the summer. Basically, it’s about three people in limbo before they start their new life.
Rapid response unit
(Guardian, Sept 14, 2007, by Andrew Pulver)

Is Michael Winterbottom a machine? He's now on to his 10th film this decade: you've got to admire the workrate. Last year he made Road to Guantánamo; the year before A Cock and Bull Story. This year's effort, A Mighty Heart, is about to come out the UK; and he's already halfway through his next—a strange little ghost story set in the Italian city of Genoa, where he's spent most of the summer...Where, you have to wonder, does he get the energy?

"We made a conscious effort to keep things as simple as possible," he says. Winterbottom is sitting around waiting to begin a night shoot in Genoa....

So here in Genoa, the smallness of the crew is everything. Deep in the city's old town, wedged in a maze of medieval alleyways, the production has taken over a flat for the purposes of the evening's shoot. And by the standards of a film set, there is hardly anyone here. The cameraman, Marcel Zyskind, sets his own lights, free of the usual squad of riggers, electricians and cablemen. There's someone with a microphone and tape recorder, a couple of people dealing with the actors' costumes and makeup, someone else looking after the props. A few others—sensible-looking people in their 20s, mostly—are waiting tensely out on the stairwell in case they are needed: perhaps to be sent off to look for a bar or cafe that might be used in the next day's shooting. (Pretty soon you realise that everyone appears to be on a neverending quest to find places they can film, Winterbottom included. This is not a production so flush with cash that they can simply go in and rent where they feel like.) The scene Winterbottom is shooting involves his lead actor, Colin Firth, thundering into his small daughter's bedroom; why, he wants to know, has she been scribbling endless pictures of her dead mother?

On set, with the camera turning over, Winterbottom is suddenly a very different figure. The affability has pretty much disappeared; there's no mistaking that he is entirely focused on the task at hand. In a small but telling indication that he really wants to keep on top of things, he has—rather remarkably—a small monitor strapped to his hip. It shows how he has harnessed technology to allow him, literally, to stay light on his feet. All the cumbersome procedures of the conventional film set have been jettisoned; and the actors, in particular, really like it.

Firth, who himself is fitting his work on Winterbottom's film around shooting scenes on a much bigger-budget number, the adaptation of the Abba musical Mamma Mia!, is unabashed in his appreciation. "He makes it seem like the most obvious way to work of all," he says later. "I appreciate that it is a very tiny unit, and it means everyone is at the heart of the process. You're in touch with the decisions and what's going on. You're part of it in a way that in conventional films is just not the case. For very obvious reasons, there are obstacles in 'normal' film-making: you spend hours waiting for the lighting and the rigging and the setting-up; then you're brought in to make your contribution in very minute pieces and out of sequence. Most actors will tell you on a film like that you're struggling to be where you should be. The waiting has the effect of sapping the energy. It drains you."

As the man at the sharp end of things on Genova, Firth talks through Winterbottom's on-set techniques. Rehearsal is pretty much dispensed with, says Firth—admittedly not especially uncommon in cinema, where freshness is all—but Winterbottom never does a second take of the same shot; when they go through a scene a second time, he always shifts the camera's position. The camera, he says, is also turning over from virtually the second they arrive in any given location. "He doesn't say 'action'; he doesn't say 'cut'; he'll just catch your eye and give you an indication that they are rolling." Nor, it transpires, is there a continuity person around to keep track of what's happening, which means matching shots in the conventional matter is virtually impossible. Hence the apparently casual, semi-random editing style Winterbottom has developed; as much a question of necessity than any aesthetic affectation.

If digital film-making has helped Winterbottom establish an extraordinary level of productivity, it's also helped him extract natural, unforced performances from his cast. That skill became crucial when Winterbottom turned to using non-professional Afghan refugees as the cast for his most radical experiment in stripped-down, on-the-move film-making, In This World. on which he achieved rarely equalled levels of naturalism...

Genova lacks the Hollywood money of A Mighty Heart, but you sense that parsimony is a deliberate choice: with more money comes more interference, and the consequent evaporation of control over what you do. Winterbottom returns to the theme: "With digital, if you have the gear, then costs virtually disappear. Look at 9 Songs; we made it all ourselves and hardly spent anything. But there's still a problem after that; getting a film into the state where it's ready to show in a cinema is still really expensive." But it has its compensations. As the sun goes down over the Ligurian hills, there's no doubt that, after the rigours of the Middle East, Winterbottom and Eaton are enjoying their time in Italy. Is this a film or a holiday, I ask. "The cat's out the bag ..." Eaton says. Winterbottom giggles. "We're trying not to let anyone know. The last two films were in Pakistan and Afghanistan, so we thought, it's a reward."

· Genova will be released next year
Michael Winterbottom on "A Mighty Heart"
(EDGE Boston, Jun 19, 2007, by Kilian Melloy)

EDGE: What are you working on as your next project? Will you return to this genre of drama based on true events, or will you do something more light-hearted, as you did with Tristram Shandy, or will you look to do something in a different genre?

Michael Winterbottom: What we’re doing right now is a film in Italy called Genova. It’s a story about a British guy who’s been living in America for twenty years, and his two daughters who are Americans, because they were born here. They go over to Genova for a year. [The film] just takes place in August; they sort of arrive in the heat of August, and the place is empty because everybody is on holiday. It’s a month in limbo before they start their new life in Italy. We’re about to start filming [that] in two or three weeks’ time.
Firth, Davis and Keener In Michael Winterbottom's "Genova"
(5/18/07: indieWIRE, May 18, 2007, by Peter Knegt)

Michael Winterbottom's follow-up to "A Mighty Heart," Film 4 backed "Genova," has confirmed Colin Firth, Hope Davis, and Catherine Keener as its stars. Relative newcomers Willa Holland ("The O.C.") and Perla Haney-Jardine ("Spiderman 3") will co-star. "I am very excited about working with such wonderful actors in such a beautiful city," said Winterbottom. "It is a story I have been working on for a while." Shooting is slated to begin at the end of June on location in Genova, Italy, as well as in Boston, Massachusetts.
Keener, Davis join Winterbottom pic
(Variety, May 18, 2007, by Adam Dawtrey in Cannes)

Catherine Keener and Hope Davis have joined the previously announced Colin Firth in the cast of Michael Winterbottom's next movie, "Genova."

Pic, an emotional ghost story, is financed by Film4, the U.K. Film Council and Aramid Ent. It will also star newcomers Willa Holland and Perla Haney-Jardine. Shooting starts in June, on location in Genova, Italy, and Boston. Dreamachine is handling sales.

HanWay + Celluloid Dreams = Dreamachine
(indieWIRE, Apr 3, 2007, by Eugene Hernandez)

The compay also announced that it has concluded multiple international pre-sales on...Michael Winterbottom's "Genova" with Colin Firth, Katherine Keener and Hope Davis..."
Feeling the Squeeze
(Screendaily, Mar 16, 2007)

"To be honest, it hasn't been too bad for us (with Michael Winterbottom's Genova)," says producer Andrew Eaton, co-founder of Revolution Films. "We don't shoot until the summer and so we have had quite a lot of time on our side. I think we've got the finance back in place. The ones that are financially viable will find other funds. We got a lot of offers from other funds and quite a lot of offers from equity funds in America."

Funding for New Firth Film Hit by Tax Clampdown
(Screendaily, Mar 8, 2007)

Actor Colin Firth's new film GENOVA has lost GBP500,000 ($975,000) in funding after a tax clampdown by the British government forced investors to pull out. The Michael Winterbottom film GENOVA is the second major casualty of the new restrictions introduced by the Labour government last week (02MAR07) - which mean movie investors are no longer able to offset losses against tax. The British Treasury yesterday (08MAR07) stated they would allow films close to finishing development to continue as planned. However, projects not already in production after 1 January (07) were subject to the clampdown, resulting in the withdrawal of large investments from individuals and private companies. But Genova producer Andrew Eaton is confident he will be able to recover some funding from other sources. He says, "We were lucky in that filming wasn't due to begin until July so we do have time to plug the funding gap."

Firth to star in Winterbottom pic
Ghost story 'Genova' set to shoot next spring
(Variety, Nov 1, 2006, by Adam Dawtrey)

Colin Firth will star in Michael Winterbottom's contemporary ghost story "Genova," set to shoot next spring.

Firth plays a recently widowed man who travels to Italy with his teenage daughters in search of a fresh start, but cannot escape the ghosts of his past.
HanWay takes on sales for Winterbottom's Genova
(Screendaily, Nov 1, 2006, by Wendy Mitchell)

HanWay Films has acquired worldwide rights outside the UK for Michael Winterbottom's forthcoming Genova, which now has Colin Firth attached to star.

Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton's London-based production company Revolution Films is producing with co-financing from Film4 (which holds UK rights). Winterbottom will shoot the project in spring 2007 on location in Italy with post-production will follow in the UK....

The script is written by Winterbottom and Laurence Coriat, his collaborator on A Mighty Heart and 1999's Wonderland. The story follows Joe (Firth) and his two young daughters who move to the eponymous Italian town to get a fresh start following the sudden death of their wife and mother. The elder sister explores the city's underbelly while her younger sister claims to see her mother's ghost. Casting hasn't yet been announced for the two girls.

It's the first time the London-based sales company has worked with Winterbottom, whose previous films have frequently been sold by The Works. "We've always wanted to work with Michael Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton and we are thrilled to be involved with such a heart-warming, cosmopolitan story," said HanWay CEO Tim Haslam. "We're confident it's one which will resonate with film-lovers around the world."


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