This past weekend saw the conclusion of the deal between English company ITVStudios and independent Italian production company Cattleya, which ended -according to Il Sole 24 Ore, and founder and co-CEO Riccardo Tozzi -with the former acquiring the majority stake in the latter. Production and creative direction as well as all production activity will remain in the hands of Cattleya, based in Italy, with RAI, Sky and Netflix as the main Italian partners.
This is the second internationalization of an Italian company after the acquisition of Wildside by Fremantle Media, and will be important to the Italian group, which will be able to enter the global market, as well as to the English giant, which, in turn, will be able to insert quality Italian products into its library.
At the moment, Cattleya is working on the production of the TV series ZeroZeroZero, based on Roberto Saviano‘s novel of the same name on cocaine-trafficking, and – in collaboration with Dario Argento -on Suspiria de Profundis, a horror series inspired by the novel of 19th-century English author, Thomas de Quincey. Among the company’s previous projects there are also: Gomorrah, Romanzo Criminale and Suburra.
Cinema-wise, the company has produced several box office successes in Italy, including the 2006 Oscar-nominatedfor Best Foreign Language Film, Don’t Tell (La bestia nel cuore) directed by Cristina Comecini.
