Yahoo Lifestyle Federation Studios Teams With Alessandro Usai to Launch New Italian Outfit No Name Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)
Pan-European production and sales company Federation Studios (“The Bureau”) has teamed up with prominent Italian producer Alessandro Usai to launch a new film and TV shingle in Italy called No Name Entertainment.
Usai (pictured above), who is president of Italy’s motion picture association ANICA, has over the past 15 years led the commercially successful Colorado Film Production which, among other hits, recently scored with young adult romantic drama “The Tearsmith.” Last year, it became the first Netflix Italy original to reach the No. 1 slot on the streamer’s global movie chart in the non-English-language category.
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Joining Usai in the new Rome-based joint venture with Federation will be his long-time collaborator Pier Paolo Luciani, formerly COO of Colorado Film and, prior to that, head of production at Warner Bros. Italy. Luciani has been appointed No Name COO and partner.
Federation founders Pascal Breton and Lionel Uzan, along with group co-managing director Marco Chimenz, are teaming with Usai on No Name just as the group – which oversees 35 production companies located in Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Madrid, London, Berlin, Cologne and Tel Aviv – is in talks with prospective U.S. partners to sell off a signifiant stake and take their growth to the next level.
For Federation, the venture with No Name is “not just due to the great esteem we have toward Usai and Luciani, but also stands as testimony to the fact that Italy is a promising creative hotbed due to its pool of talents, stories, traditions and its ability to innovate,” Chimenz told Variety. “As Federation grows internationally, they want to also grow in Italy.”
No Name will become Federation’s second Italian company, following Nicola and Marco de Angelis’s Fabula Pictures – known for producing the Netflix original series “Baby” and “Brigands: The Quest for Gold,” among other titles – which joined the company in 2018.
Besides “The Tearsmith,” Usai and Luciani’s impressive track record at Colorado comprises the smash hit “Me Contro Te” comedy franchise, featuring two Sicilian YouTube sensations; blockbuster comedy “La Peggior Settimana della Mia Vita”; theatrical saga “Ten Days Without Mom”; and bestselling Italian mystery writer Donato Carrisi’s directorial debut “The Girl in the Fog.” Usai, prior to joining Colorado, was among the producers of Luca Guadagnino’s Tilda Swinton-starrer “I Am Love.”
In an interview with Variety, Usai said the plan for No Name is to “start out by making two or three feature films and an important TV series,” noting that in this initial phase he is not “obsessed with scale.” In terms of genres, Usai said No Name intends to continue working in the comedy space but will also be pursuing action, thriller and horror projects, “thanks to co-productions” and the built-in synergies that come with being part of a pan-European studio.
Usai and Chimenz said they are keeping the No Name projects they have in the pipeline under wraps for now, but noted that they are exploring opportunities to work with Federation-owned IP.
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