Stanley Tucci is set to star alongside Simona Tabasco (“The White Lotus“) and Victor Belmondo (“Bardot”), in “Masterplan,” an international heist movie directed by Thomas Vincent (“Reacher”). The English-language production marks Prime Video’s first French-Italian Original film.
Filming begins today on “Masterplan” across locations in France and Italy. Gaumont, the revered French studio behind “Lupin,” is fittingly producing “Masterplan” with Amazon MGM Studios.
Tucci, who’s just wrapped filming “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” stars in “Masterplan” as a legendary thief who sets his sights on the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting residing at Le Louvre museum in Paris. He recruits two young strangers to help him — Chiara, a sharp Italian cybercrime expert (played Tabasco who broke out in “The White Lotus” season 2) and Jay, a swaggering French explosives specialist (played by Belmondo) — before revealing they are long-lost siblings and that he is their father. “Thrown into a chaotic reunion they never asked for, this new family must learn to work together — and try not to kill each other — if they want any chance at pulling off the heist of the century,” reads the synopsis.
Vincent, whose track record includes the hit series “Bodyguard” and “Reacher,” penned “Masterplan” with David Wolstencroft, the BAFTA-winning screenwriter of “Spooks” and “The Escape Artist.” The story is by Giacomo Durzi, Alessandro Fabbri, Alberto Vignati, David Wolstencroft and Vincent. The movie will be available exclusively on Prime Video in over 240 countries.
In an interview with Variety ahead of Mipcom, Nicole Morganti, head of local originals for Amazon MGM Studios in Southern Europe, and Thomas Dubois, head of local originals for Amazon MGM Studios in France, said “Masterplan” underscores their joint ambition to create content from Southern Europe that achieves a global scale.
“Masterplan” taps into the appeal around the increasingly popular heist genre, and feeds into the appetite for escapist fare with its glamorous backdrop; but there’s also a subplot revolving around family, which Dubois says “can transcend borders.”
“The movie is full of twists and turns, but Thomas Vincent also wanted to made a film about family and it gives it some depth,” says Dubois. Morganti, meanwhile, is upbeat about Tabasco playing “a kick ass woman who is incredibly smart.”
Speaking of Tucci, Dubois says his name came early in the conversation for the protagonist’s role because they “needed someone with a lot of nuances.”
“When we started to discuss casting with Thomas Vincent, Stanley Tucci was one of the first names that we all aligned on because we were like, ‘He is so special.’ And luckily, he said yes very, very quickly, after reading the script,” Dubois adds.
Although he’s an American actor, Tucci is also “one of the best experts of Italy and France,” like the thief he plays in “Mastermind,” Morganti says, noting that he partly shot “Citadel” in Italy.
Morganti says “Masterplan” builds on the long-standing co-production tradition between France and Italy, as well as the flourishing talent pool in this part of Europe.
“Both Thomas and I are convinced that Southern Europe has the potential to become an incubator for more global content and this project gives us the possibility to show how French and Italian producers and creators can actually produce ambitious English-language content for the world, ” Morganti argues.
Thomas, meanwhile, said, “In France and Italy, we have savoir-faire in film and television production and in joining our creative powers, we know that we’re able to access a certain level of production and of ambition,” says Dubois. On an industrial standpoint, the co-production also allows Prime Video to “rationalize the cost of a very ambitious project,” he continues.
Whereas international co-productions handled by several broadcasters can sometimes lead to so-called “Euro pudding,” Dubois says he and Morganti have made sure the project would feel “organic and authentic,” firstly by “having France and Italy be characters in the story.”
As such, the international flavor of “Masterplan” partly comes from its wealth of locations, Dubois says, citing Rome and Paris, as well as the Louvre museum. The involvement of Gaumont, which has a solid footprint in France and Italy, was another key component that ensured the film would feel authentic, Dubois said.
Prime Video in France has actually been working with Gaumont on a number of titles, such as the recent action movie “Carjarkers” and the heartfelt drama “Once Upon My Mother” with Leila Bekhti and Jonathan Cohen. In Italy, Prime Video has just collaborated with Gaumont in a Christmas movie that will be coming out in November, Morganti says.
Morganti says there will be more co-productions going forward as “locals producers got excited when hearing of the first French-Italian Original film at Prime Video.”
The streamer has been successfully making headway into the English-language space in Italy with “Hotel Costiera” which stars “Grey’s Anatomy” alumnus Jesse Williams as a half-Italian former U.S. Marine. The show, which unfolds at a luxurious hotel on the coastline of Positano, just hit No. 1 on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. over weekend.
“‘Hotel Costiera,” Morganti says, “shows the level of ambition we have in creating English content from Southern Europe that resonates globally with a flavor that is different from what is being made in the U.S.” Another hot English-language show on Morganti’s pipeline at Prime Video is “Postcards From Italy,” a series which is currently filming with “Culpa Mia” star Nicole Wallace and director Jessica Yu, whose credits include “Only Murders in the Building” and “The Morning Show.”
