Yahoo Lifestyle Netflix Previews Deva Cassel-Led ‘The Leopard’ Series, Its Most Ambitious Italian Original to Date: ‘Sumptuous and Emotionally Charged’
Netflix pulled out all the stops as it unveiled its hotly anticipated limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which marks the streamer’s biggest splash in Italy thus far.
On Tuesday, Netflix held a packed press conference in the frescoed ballroom of Rome’s central Hotel Plaza, which was also used to film one of the show’s key scenes. “The Leopard” will formally premiere in Rome on March 3 with a black-tie gala held in the Eternal City’s Opera Theatre before dropping globally on March 5.
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The lavish historical tapestry — with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” and potential to make a global mark — is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The film, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.
Netflix’s VP of Italian originals Eleonora Andreatta proudly noted that “The Leopard” proves the scope of the streamer’s production ambition in Italy and was recently singled out by the streaming giant’s chief content officer Bela Bajaria during her L.A. presentation. “We’ve made a sumptuous and emotionally-charged show that captures the current timeliness of the novel,” she said. However, Andreatta declined to specify the show’s budget, which is believed to be more than €40 million ($42 million).
The six-episode epic, set against the backdrop of social revolution in 1860s Sicily, stars top model Deva Cassell – who is Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel’s daughter – as Angelica Sedara, the stunning middle-class woman who becomes a catalyst of social disruption and was played by Cardinale in the original. It’s a big breakout role for Cassel, who made her acting debut in Laura Luchetti’s 2023 “The Beautiful Summer” and will next be seen in a “Twilight”-inspired “Phantom of the Opera” adaptation directed by Alexandre Castagnetti.
Italy’s Kim Rossi Stewart (“Romanzo Criminale”) plays Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, who in the masterpiece movie was played by Lancaster; while Saul Nanni (“Love & Gelato”) stars as the prince’s nephew Tancredi Falconeri, played by Delon in the film. Benedetta Porcaroli (“Baby”) plays Concetta, his cousin who is madly in love with Tancredi.
The core of the show – largely shot in ravishing Sicilian locations – revolves around patriarch Don Fabrizio, who is faced with a difficult choice. He can arrange a marriage between the rich, beautiful and upwardly mobile Angelica and his nephew Tancredi, which could secure his family’s legacy and economic stability. But doing so will break the heart of his favorite daughter, Concetta. The series is “an exploration of timeless themes: power, love and the cost of progress,” as the provided synopsis puts it.
“Angelica is a multi-layered character,” Cassel said at the press conference. “She comes from a humble background and has an opportunity to enter the echelon of nobility. But she is torn. She doesn’t feel comfortable in this [aristocratic] world. She does everything she can to cling on to Tancredi. But the more things progress, the more she realizes that she has her own hidden identity.”
British director Tom Shankland, whose credits include Netflix’s true crime series “The Serpent,” is the lead director on “The Leopard.” Richard Worlow, who previously worked with Shankland on “The Serpent,” penned the script alongside Benji Walters. Italian directors Giuseppe Capotondi and Laura Luchetti helmed Episodes 4 and 5, respectively.
The show is lead-produced by Fabrizio Donvito of Italy’s Indiana Production in tandem with Moonage Pictures, the U.K. banner headed by the producers behind “Peaky Blinders.”
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