Italy’s Cinecittà Studios Veers Towards Digital Age With Large LED Wall as New Soundstage Prepares to Host Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion of the Christ’ Sequel

Following the glory days of Hollywood filmmaking in Rome during the 1950s and 1960s, Italy is once again becoming a magnet for international productions – particularly from Hollywood. And the main driver is a combination of the country’s tax incentives and Rome’s Cinecittà studio, which is being refurbished and is now a state-of-the-art digital age facility.

That was the main takeaways of a panel held as party of Variety’s Global Conversations Summit at the Cannes Film Festival.

Nicola Borrelli, head of the film department of Italy’s culture ministry, provided a detailed rundown of the country’s 40% rebate for international film and TV productions. “In Italy there is a €20 million euros ($22 million) per year cap per company,” he said. But, Borrelli added, “there is no cap per project.” So there have been lots of international shoots with much higher budgets that have been able to tap into the rebate through different companies, he said.

Here’s another big plus that Italy’s rebates have to offer. While other countries offer a similar tax credit percentage, “in Italy 70% of our tax credit can be used immediately during filming. It’s cash back as you go,” Borrelli pointed out.

Cinecittà’s sales and business manager Francesca Rotondo underlined that the iconic facilities are in the process of adding five more studios, raising the total number of soundstages from 19 to 24. “These new studios will ensure a 60% increase in terms of studio space capacity,” Rotondo said. They include the new Studio 22, which is more than 38,000 square feet and in September will host Mel Gibson’s “The Resurrection of the Christ,” and Cinecittà’s Studio 18, home to Europe’s largest and most modern LED wall.

Steve Jelley, producer and CO-CEO of London-based Dimension Studio, which recently partnered with Cinecittà to help make it a prime virtual production destination, said when he arrived at the Cinecittà lot to work with Roland Emmerich on his gladiator series, “Those About to Die” (40% of which was shot using the LED wall), he didn’t realize how many great open-air Rome sets the studio has, including Circus Maximus, and how great its art department is. The combination of these elements enabled Emmerich to shoot the 10 episode series in six months.

Shooting recently wrapped at Cinecittà on the U.S. sci-fi thriller “White Mars,” headlined by Luke Newton (“Bridgerton”) and Lucy Hale (“Pretty Little Liars”), and an unspecified sci fi feature set in Antarctica, both of which were filmed entirely using the LED wall at Cinecittà’s Theater 18, Jelley proudly noted.