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Looks as though Woody will be shooting in Rome later this year.

ETA: 6/22

Confirmed by Woody himself.

He has previously mentioned this next film will be a "political film".

With all the Berlusconi news and with a Rome confirmation now, I think one might be able to determine what Woody means when he says "political", perhaps.

Penélope Cruz is set to star in the upcoming Rome Project.

She's actually fluent in Italian, so this makes sense.

Alec Baldwin also confirmed, and Jesse Eisenberg reportedly being wooed as well-- the man knows what he's doing!

Ellen Page joins. Jesse Eisenberg is confirmed...

Holy smokes!

All we need are Amy Adams and Michelle Williams and we have a Domino yahtzee.

Rome project is titled already: "The Wrong Picture"

Roberto Benigni joins the Rome project.

Also, the film is not called The Wrong Picture. Still "Woody Allen Summer Project 2011"

Great news: Woody's going to appear in the Rome film(!)

The Rome project has "Bop Decameron" as its working title.

Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron" is set to inspire the vignette-like structure of this film.

With Darius Khondji back as DP and the Decameron inspiration, I'm hoping we have a Fellini homage on our hands.

I loved the old title but man, the new ones rules so hard

Some great news - Woody has confirmed the rumors that Judy Davis will make her first appearance in a Woody film since 1998's Celebrity in the upcoming Rome project. Possibly playing his wife.

mfunk9786 wrote:All we need are Amy Adams and Michelle Williams and we have a Domino yahtzee.

Well, we know he already cast Michelle Williams once before but the project fell through.


In his nonstop quest to get me to love his movie even more than usual, Woody Allen has also cast Greta Gerwig and Alison Pill for Bop Decameron

Article in The Guardian cements the Fellini connection.

Some amateur video of The Woodman directing and Roberto Benigni taking off his pants.

Allen has previously paid homage to Italian directors like Fellini in an episode in his 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, where he plays a smooth Italian troubled by the fact his wife can only have satisfying sex in public.

I'm surprised the article didn't mention STARDUST MEMORIES, the most blatantly Fellini-esque of Allen's films up to this point.

Roger Ryan wrote:Allen has previously paid homage to Italian directors like Fellini in an episode in his 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, where he plays a smooth Italian troubled by the fact his wife can only have satisfying sex in public.

I'm surprised the article didn't mention STARDUST MEMORIES, the most blatantly Fellini-esque of Allen's films up to this point.

That, and the Italian segment in "Everything..." was more a take on Antonioni films (according to Woody himself) than Fellini.

Radio Days was a pretty overt Fellini homage as well. Would've been even more so had they left some of the hyper-Fellini / Amarcord-esque scenes in the film, most notably the original opening with the entire neighbourhood gathered on the beach to watch an escape artist - the most elaborate and expensive shot in the film and it never even made it to the screen!

Boooooo: this is now called Nero Fiddled

“I couldn’t believe how few people had heard of the Decameron, even in Rome,” Allen said in a statement. “And the few that did assumed the movie was based on Boccaccio’s tales, which it’s not. Anyhow, I changed the title to ‘Nero Fiddled,’ which is the first time I’ve changed a title since my last minute switch of ‘Anhedonia’ to ‘Annie Hall.’”

That's a real sad statement on the populace too.

Well, look how well things turned out for the other movie he renamed.

Never heard of it. This is that young man who made September, correct?

The Sam Shepard film? I remember hearing about it, but it never came our way.

I assume that the title Bop Decameron involved a reference to Tadd Dameron, a key composer and arranger of the bop era. He was one of those important transitional figures that all the musicians admired and worked with, but whose public visibility was fairly low. His later drug addiction, time in the pen, bad health and relatively early death didn't win him any Downbeat polls, while adding to his tragic mystique.

Anyway, it would have been interesting to see Woody utilize more post-war jazz, than he usually does, perhaps even mellow bop, if that's where he was headed. I'm pretty sure I've read years back that Woody is a Dameron fan (he's also partial to Randy Weston).
Of course if you put Decameron in the title, it's not surprising that folks might think the film has some relationship to, well, The Decameron.
He should have stuck with the original title.

Then again, I also wish Woody would spend more time on a given project and make a good film every two years instead of an okay film every year. Woody is sure successful at making a quantity of films.

He has previously mentioned this next film will be a "political film".

Well if he doesn't like this title, I would like to suggest:

Everything you always wanted to know about bunga bunga parties but were afraid to ask

I think that would have even more name recognition than either Nero or Decameron.

Interesting supporting Italian cast: Ornella Muti, the most beautiful woman (ever) very well preserved at 60 years old; Antonio Albanese, good drama (Taviani's Tu ridi, Days and clouds) actor who stars comercial comedies; Ricardo Scamarcio, the new national sex syboll, he is absolutely hot; Isabella Ferrari (seen in Caos calmo, Saturn in opposition, etc) who owns the best tits in Europe with the permission of Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi.

What a pity W.Allen is not interested in offer flesh (Match point was a missing oportunity when they nail under the rain), with that hot cast + Penelope, and the refferences to Bocaccio or / and Pasolini's decameron, come on, it's Italy, show us sex.