Johnny Depp’s ‘Modi’ Adds New Cast As Shoot Gets Underway In Hungary

Melanie Goodfellow
·2 min read
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Italian actress Luisa Ranieri has joined the cast of Johnny Depp’s upcoming Amadeo Modigliani bio-pic Modi as filming gets underway in Hungary.

Ranieri’s arrival on the picture was announced by Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino at Rome-based IBLE group which has joined Depp’s in.2 Film and Barry Navidi Productions on the film.

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Modi is Depp’s second feature in the director’s chair after his 1997 feature The Brave.

Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio plays the titular painter and sculptor, with previously announced cast members including Al Pacino, in the role of art collector Maurice Gangnat.

Ranieri will play Rosalie Tobia, the owner of a Paris cafe frequented by impoverished artists, who took Modigliani under her wing when he was down and out.

“Luisa Ranieri, is among one of Italy’s most talented actresses, with the portential for international success,” Iervolino said in a statement released to Italian news agency Ansa on Tuesday.

Ranieri’s recent credits include Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated drama The Hand of God, and she is also set to appear in his new untitled Naples-set film alongside Gary Oldman.

The production put out a statement on Wednesday confirming further fresh cast additions: Stephen Graham (The Irishman, Boiling Point), Bruno Gouery (The White Lotus, Emily in Paris), Ryan McParland (Halo, Calm with Horses), Benjamin Lavernhe (Jeanne du Barry, The French Dispatch) and Sally Phillips (Love at First Sight, Bridget Jones Trilogy). Other previously announced cast members include Antonia Desplat.

The announcements comes a week after Depp and his cast and crew set down in Budapest for the start of principal photography on the film, prompting numerous celebrity sightings and posts showing the location sets on Hungary’s social media networks.

The picture chronicles the life of Italian artist Modigliani in World War One Paris.

His desire to prematurely end his career and leave the city is dismissed by fellow bohemians: French artist Maurice Utrillo, the Belarusian-born Chaim Soutine and his English muse and lover, Beatrice Hastings. Modi seeks advice from his Polish art dealer and friend Leopold Zborowski, but the chaos reaches a crescendo when he’s faced with a collector who could change his life.

The production is shooting in streets around Budapest’s Károlyi Garden, which are doubling up for the streets of the French capital in the 1910s, as well as its Buda Castle.

Nicola Pecorini (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus) is Director of Photography; Dave Warren (Sweeney Todd, Hugo) leads production design and Penny Rose (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mummy) is costume designer. Sharon Howard-Field (Elsa & Fred, The Music of Silence, Merchant of Venice) oversees casting.

Local production in Budapest is handled by Proton Cinema. The Veterans handles international sales.

Depp represented by Jack Whigham at Range Media Partners.

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