Brand new sales agency Neo Art International has picked up worldwide sales rights outside Italy to Claudio Amendola’s black comedy film trilogy “Cassamortari” (“Funeral Family”).
The film trilogy narrates the story of The Pasti Family, a Roman family who work in the funeral business.
The three titles of the saga are set up at Rome-based company Paco Cinematografica, and co-produced with Antonia Nava’s Neo Art Producciones in Barcelona.
“I Cassamortari,” the first title of the saga, was streamed in 2022 in Italy by Amazon Prime Video, described as an Amazon Exclusive production.
Written by Mary Estella Brugiati and Alessandro Bosi, “Ari-Cassamortari” (“Funeral Family 2”), the second delivery, is currently in post.
This time the film tells how the Pasti Brothers have created a name for themselves as VIP gravediggers, along with an eccentric half-sister they had no idea they had.
“Funeral Family 2” cast take in many of the stars of “I Cassamortari,” such as Massimo Ghini, Gian Marco Tognazzi, Lucia Ocone and Alessandro Sperduti.
The producers plan to start by the end of the year principal photography on “Cassamortary 3” (“Funeral Family 3”), currently in development.
The trilogy also counts on the support of Mediaset in Italy.
Paco Cinematografica co-founders Isabella Cocuzza and Arturo Paglia produce the saga via their Roma-based outfit, which previously produced high-profile international projects such as Giuseppe Tornatore’s “The Best Offer,” starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland.
After its recent launch as a sales division at Berlin’s European Film Market, Neo Art Intl., a partnership between Antonia Nava and Spain-based sales agent Liliana Bravo, is bringing the “Cassamortari” trilogy onto the market at this week’s Málaga Film Festival.
The Swedish-born Natalia Villalón has also joined Neo Art to lead advertising and branding, services and co-productions for Scandinavia.
Neo Art Intl. represents Nava’s return to the international sales arena. A producer and sales chief on Brad Anderson’s “The Machinist” and “Transsiberian,” when she headed up Filmax Int. for over 10 years, Nava’s Neo Art Producciones has been rapidly diversifying.
Beyond the sales operation, Neo Art has opened a production services division to leverage Spain’s muscular shoot incentives, which offer a up-to-60% deduction rate in the Basque Country’s Bizkaia and €18 million ($19.2 million) rebates per TV episode shot in the Canary Islands.
“After 11 years as a company dedicated to international production and co-production, we have felt expansion and diversification as something natural, both when representing our own projects and those of other producers,” Nava explained.
“Although the plan has been maturing for some time, the time has come to put it into action and it is indeed going quickly. It was being conceived,” she said.
“I think that more sales agents with extensive international experience are needed. The market always changes, we never seem happy, but the truth is that they are still there, as is audience consumption, although in a greater diversity of formats,” she added.
Neo Art Intl. activity will focus on different fronts, having Italy, Latin America, Spain and Scandinavia as its favorite territories for co-production.
“The vocation of both Neo Art and my own has always been international and we have built an important network since the beginning of the company. We are ready,” Nava commented.
Neo Art is also presenting at Malaga “I’m the Boss,” a family comedy directed by Federico Moccia, the creator behind Italian and Spanish blockbusters, “Three Steps Above Heaven” and “I Want You.”
Fruit of Neo Art’s market expansion is the TV trilogy project “The Wicked Game,” which the company is also discussing with potential partners and buyers at Málaga.
Designed as a Nordic noir thriller, where Spain (Neo Art) and Scandinavia will be the filming territories, “The Wicked Game” represents two new milestones for the company: its first collaboration with the Scandinavian market and also its first TV series project.
