As Midnight in Paris continues to rake in cash as one of the most popular Woody Allen films ever, he readies his next stop on the Grand Tour of Europe, finalizing the cast for Bop Decameron, to be set in Rome.
Starring, in alphabetical order, are: Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penélope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. Co-stars include Antonio Albanese, Fabio Armiliata, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ornella Muti, Alison Pill, Riccardo Scamarcio and Alessandro Tiberi, and
Flavio Parenti [the unfortunate son in I Am Love.]This is Allen’s first film to be financed by the Italian production and distribution company, Medusa Film. The Bop Decameron begins production on July 11 and marks Allen’s first time shooting in Rome.
(press release)
As Wiki reminds us:
The Decameron is a collection of 100 novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio, probably begun in 1350 and finished in 1351/3. It is a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the tragic. Other topics such as wit and witticism, practical jokes and worldly initiation also form part of the mosaic. Beyond its entertainment and literary popularity it remains an important historical document of life in the fourteenth century, and has been influential with later authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer.
Hugh Hefner wanted to adapt the naughtiest stories from the Decameron in an outright pornographic epic, but perhaps thought better of the hardcore concept after Penthouse and Bob Guccione’s attempt to reveal full-frontal Rome in Caligula. Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed his version of the Decameron in 1971. Of course, ‘The Bop’ in Woody’s title indicates an update to the present day — with a clever overlap between the musical and sexual definitions of the term.
