Revered Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, who is at the Venice Film Festival with HBO series “Portobello,” is set to make a high-end biopic titled “Falcon” about charismatic auto industry executive Sergio Marchionne who saved Fiat and Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy.
Shooting on “Falcon” is expected to start in 2026 in Italy, the U.S. and Canada.
The project is written by Bellocchio with Ludovica Rampoldi, Andrea di Stefano, Stefano Rulli and with the collaboration of Oliviero Del Papa. “Falcon” is being produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, by Mattia Mor for Emotion Network and RAI Cinema.
Marchionne, who was Italian and Canadian, died in 2018 at 66. He was hired by Italy’s Agnelli family to run Fiat in 2004 when, due to previous mismanagement plus the recession, few in the auto industry believed it could be saved. Then, in 2009, when Chrysler was guided into a U.S. government-led bankruptcy, Marchionne offered to take control of the company, essentially for free. With no other option, the U.S. Treasury Department accepted his offer. By merging the two failing car companies Marchionne created the seventh-largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, increasing Fiat’s value more than ten-fold.
Known for wearing dark cashmere sweaters, citing philosophers and pop stars during presentations, and living on a corporate jet, Marchionne also famously managed to get General Motors to pay $2 billion to sever ties with Fiat. Soon after becoming Fiat boss, he took advantage of an existing deal between G.M. and Fiat to attempt to force G.M. to buy the Italian automaker. Since G.M. had no desire to make that move, Marchionne forced them to pay Fiat $2 billion to end their alliance. He then used the money to develop new models, including the small new Fiat 500 that became a hit.
“I like the idea of telling the story of an Italian, Sergio Marchionne, who challenges two giants in America, GM and Chrysler, and wins,” Bellocchio said in a statement, adding that “there’s still a lot to do; we’re only just getting started.”
The director went on to underline that Marchionne “didn’t let himself be subjugated or be crushed.” “His brilliance, his courage, and his managerial ruthlessness saved Fiat, which, as the experts put it, was ‘technically bankrupt’,” he said.
Bellocchio also pointed out that, despite his great managerial feats, Marchionne was never aligned with Italy’s political establishment which basically saw him as a threat.
“I’m drawn to telling the story of a winner who, upon returning home, is greeted with hostility by some Italian institutions within the left, center, and right [political spheres]. In the end one might say that he was a ‘tragic winner,’” Bellocchio concluded.
The prolific – and still very active – Bellocchio, who is 85, is considered the greatest living Italian director of the country’s old guard that came of age during the 1960s. His recent works comprise 2019 drama “The Traitor,” about the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, that was released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics. In 2023 he shot “Kidnapped,” which reconstructs the true tale of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy who was kidnapped and forcibly raised as a Christian in 19th-century Italy.
The six-episode “Portobello” TV series, which reconstructs one of Italy’s most clamorous travesties of justice, will be the first HBO Original Italian production to launch on the HBO Max streaming platform where it will drop in 2026.
variety.com
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