Italy’s D’Innocenzo Brothers Set For TV Series With Cattleya (EXCLUSIVE)

By Nick Vivarelli

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Italian twins Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo who made a splash in Berlin with crimer “Boys Cry” are set to direct a TV series centered around a present-day exorcist produced by Cattleya, Italy’s prominent production shingle controlled by ITV.

“,” which explores Rome’s criminal underworld through the prism of two street kids who try to play with the big boys, has gone from Berlin to earning the D’Innocenzo brothers  plenty of critical kudos. They recently won the best emerging director Silver Ribbon prize awarded by Italy’s film critics.

“They gave us a very powerful series concept,” topper Riccardo Tozzi said about the show working-titled “Il Proprietario” in Italian, which translates as “The Owner.” 

Tozzi said it will be “a deep series about evil and the necessity of evil” and pointed out that though one of the central characters is an exorcist “he’s totally different from any of the exorcists we’ve seen on screen before.”

The producer praised the twin brothers, who are 30 and self-taught, as “very good writers.” They will handle scripting duties themselves.

“They are so creative and fast,” Tozzi noted, adding that “they are really good at taking notes from us; which doesn’t mean they go with everything we say. But when they don’t agree, they are usually right.”

Though he declined to reveal much else, Tozzi said that “we won’t be seeing exorcism rituals, aside from maybe one” and called “Il Proprietario” a very deep Dostoyevskian show.

“It’s a genre show: it scares you, it has tension, it’s a thriller, but it’s also very deep,” he said.

Cattleya has a broadcaster on board but Tozzi would not reveal which one.