Continuing its push into the genre space, Italy’s Indiana Production has announced it is set to produce action chiller “ Piranhas in Rome – The Great Horror Beauty,” from a screenplay by ace Rome-based writing duo Nicola Guaglianone and Menotti, who penned hit superhero movie “They Call Me Jeeg.” While its director is still being decided, the “Piranhas in Rome” scribes are promoting the project that is set in an “apocalyptic and aquatic” Eternal City “as it has never seen before,” according to a synopsis. Menotti (which is the pen name of comic book artist and screenwriter Roberto Marchionni) provided Variety with exclusive concept art – see image above – for the live-action project in which predatory freshwater fish invade Rome by entering the city’s water supply system through the Tiber river.
The film’s heroic protagonists are Ilenia, a policewoman hellbent on doing anything to save the Italian capital, even if it means breaking the rules; an influencer named Baby; and Rowena, a Filipino fishmonger who has a degree in marine biology. These three women join forces to save the situation. Guaglianone and Menotti described “Piranhas” as conceptually different from Netflix shark thriller “Under Paris,” which according to Guaglianone “just apes American action movies.
” Though “Piranhas” will similarly make use of U.S. action movie genre tropes, the film will also have a very culturally specific contemporary Rome-set storyline.
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