Yahoo Lifestyle A guide to 'The Leopard', Netflix’s sumptuous new period drama
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s 1958 novel, The Leopard, is being given the Netflix treatment.
The streaming platform has announced that the book, which is widely considered one of the most important and prescient in Italian literature, will become a six-part epic to be released later this year.
The drama will follow the fictional Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, and other key players in this noble family, who find themselves struggling in the socioeconomic turmoil of the Risorgimento (the Italian reunification, which took place in the 1800s).
Netflix’s take on the widely acclaimed classic novel comes six decades after Luchino Visconti’s film adaptation. Starring Burt Lancaster as the lead, the film won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 1963 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest movies ever to be made.
The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedus
Here’s our full guide to The Leopard, the latest period drama that’s set to be our new Netflix obsession.
The Leopard on Netflix: plot and synopsis
Don Fabrizio Corbera, the prince of Salina, is the beating heart of a Sicilian aristocratic family. While their gilded lives are rooted in privilege, the ongoing reunification of Italy, which was triggered following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, could see Sicilian noble families wiped out.
In order to preserve his family’s legacy, Don Corbera arranges a marriage between his nephew Tancredi to the wealthy and beautiful Angelica – however, such a union poses a risk of breaking his daughter Concetta’s heart. With Concetta his favourite daughter, with Don Corbera choose love over lineage?
Tinny Andreatta, vice president for Italian content at Netflix, explains that The Leopard will not be told from any specific vantage point. “At first glance, it is a drama that [describes], as the Prince of Salina says, the universal condition of those who belong to ‘a disgraced generation, straddling the old times and the new, and who are uncomfortable in both’, yet it is also [about an] intimate affair that binds the great patriarch of this family and his beloved daughter.
“It’s a current story, despite being written almost 70 years ago. In the soul of this work, there is an extraordinary humanity and universality, a specific and authentic identity that, precisely because it is unique, can reach everyone.”
Who is the cast of The Leopard?
With an authentic Italian cast, Kim Rossi Stuart stars as Don Fabrizio Corbera, the family’s patriarch. Saul Nanni will play the beguiling Tancredi, while Benedetta Porcaroli stars as Concetta. Deva Cassel, the 20-year-old daughter of Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassell, will play aristocrat Angelica.
Tom Shankland directs episodes 1, 2, 3, and 6; Giuseppe Capotondi directs episode 4; and Laura Luchetti directs episode 5.
Where was The Leopard filmed?
To be in-keeping with the verisimilitude of the original novel, The Leopard was filmed in Palermo, Siracusa, Catania, and Rome. See it as the Italian equivalent of The Crown – big budget and beautiful.
“The series represents the great artistic and productive ambition of Netflix in Italy,” Eleonora Andreatta, Netflix’s VP of Italian originals, explained when the show was announced. “We chose to shoot on location, from Palermo to Syracuse and Catania, which has allowed us to capture the variety of this marvellous environment, rich in beauty and with a history of stratified civilisation that mixes Greek and Arab and Norman cultures. This, too, is The Leopard.
“We immersed ourselves in the opulence of the 19th century, among amazing Baroque palaces and the lively colours of a land parched by the sun. This is a great value that we are sure can fascinate Italian audiences, but also conquer international viewers with its magic.”
When will The Leopard be released on Netflix?
The Leopard will land on the streaming platform from 5 March 2025.
You Might Also Like
