It also has the taste of a posthumous tribute to the talent of Alessandro D’Alatri, the great success achieved by Rai Com at the “Screenings” in Naples. Among the products that have attracted the most attention at the traditional showcase event with international buyers, “I bastardi di Pizzofalcone” and “Il commissario Ricciardi,” the Rai-produced series directed by the late Roman director. The crime genre’s success consolidates the achievements of other famous Italian series, starting with “Il commissario Montalbano,” which continues to garner high ratings in Italy while captivating primetime audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
The satisfaction is palpable at Rai Com, the subsidiary of Rai responsible for international TV rights sales. “It’s the result of an effort we have built over the past three years through greater synergy with Rai,” explains Alessandro Ravani, the company’s commercial director, “and it is allowing us to showcase the quality of Italian production worldwide.” Regarding the crime genre – “A trend” Ravani comments, “that has seen Rai Com at the forefront at the series industry since the success of ‘La Piovra’ in the 1980s” – the stories featuring Lino Guanciale as Commissario Ricciardi have been acquired by the British Channel 4, along with “Le indagini di Lolita Lobosco” “L’allieva” and “Cuori” as part of a package of products confidently purchased by GSN, a consortium representing British, American, and Australian broadcasters, which has already reserved the upcoming seasons of the successful series set in 1930s Naples based on Maurizio De Giovanni’s novels. MHZ, the company that popularized “Il commissario Montalbano” in the United States, has expanded its interest in the Italian market by acquiring TV films based on Andrea Camilleri’s novels and presented by Rai in the “C’era una volta Vigata” series. But among the products destined to land in America, there are also “Vincenzo Malinconico, avvocato d’insuccesso” with Massimiliano Gallo, the fourth series of “I bastardi di Pizzofalcone” (starring Alessandro Gassman), and the third season of “Imma Tataranni” with Vanessa Scalera. The substitute prosecutor from Matera, with her always slightly over-the-top outfits, will also return to Finland with the second season and to French Canal Plus with the third season and an option for the fourth. Rai Com is very pleased with the sale of 220 episodes of “Il Paradiso delle Signore – Daily” to RTVE, there is more to come. Starting with “L’amica geniale,” the series created by Saverio Costanzo and inspired by Elena Ferrante’s best-selling novels. The first three seasons of the HBO co-produced drama have already reached and captivated audiences in many countries around the world, starting with the USA, where the quality of the acting has even prompted the first-ever decision to forgo English dubbing. In Naples these days, there has been a flurry of questions about the arrival of the fourth season, whose filming took place in the city in recent months. “A great script combined with cinematic filming techniques,” Ravani concludes, “allows us to offer the international market a product that has few rivals. And the reactions it elicits make us proud every time.”
