Cattleya Producciones, a production company specializing in the creation of fiction series and films, is looking for the actors who will star in the adaptation of the novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte El italiano. The company has acquired the audiovisual rights to the book, which will be brought to television in the form of a miniseries.
Inspired by true events, The Italian is a story of love, sea and spies set in the midst of World War II in the Bay of Algeciras, where Italian combat divers are wreaking havoc on British ships; There, Elena Arbués and Teseo Lombardo will cross paths in an espionage plot that takes place on both sides of the Gibraltar fence.
The novel has been a bestseller in 2021 and 2022, with more than 500,000 copies sold in Spanish, and has recently been launched in Italy, where it has been available in bookstores since last June.
The project is led by Arturo Díaz, general director and executive producer of Cattleya Producciones, and Ricardo Tozzi, founder and president of Cattleya, both behind series such as Romanzo Criminale, Gomorra, Suburra, ZeroZeroZero or Summertime, in Tozzi's case; The cable girls, Elite or The robbery of the century, among others, by Díaz.
Cattleya Producciones is already working on the international cast of actors who will give life to the Spanish, Italian and English protagonists of this story.
The screenwriter Beto Marini, creator of series such as The Unit or feature films such as While You Sleep, The Unknown or Extinction, will be responsible for the adaptation of the novel.
"When we read The Italian, it was impossible not to imagine a television series. Arturo Pérez-Reverte transports us to unique times and places, we fall in love with his characters, and he surprises and excites us in equal parts (...) We want to make El italiano an international, ambitious series, at the level of an author who represents Spain in the world", said the director general of Cattleya Producciones.
For Tozzi, The Italian is "an exciting story of adventure, love and espionage, set in an unconventional place", Gibraltar, a British territory that was affected by World War II by bordering Spain, a neutral country.
"The characters are ordinary men and women who, conditioned by the times they lived in, led extraordinary lives," adds the Italian producer.
"The Italian is also, adds Tozzi, the story of the soldiers (sailors in this case) who were torn apart by internal conflicts caused by the declared armistice between Italy and the Allied Forces on September 8, 1943", a date "crucial ", comments Tozzi, because on that day "our protagonist will choose to side with the Italian Army."
Pérez-Reverte, with more than twenty million readers in the world, translated into forty languages and with many of his works made into films and television, has pointed out that El italiano is his attempt to "recover and honor the memory "of a bunch of people who did incredible things, but who history relegated to the background.
"I am sure that the Cattleya series, of which I have always admired the quality of its productions, will be faithful to the story that I wrote", concluded Pérez-Reverte.
