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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Italy

Claudio Giovannesi is directing James Franco in Hey Joe

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- The US actor and director is playing the lead in this movie set in 1970s Naples, coming courtesy of the Silver-Bear-winning filmmaker behind Piranhas

Claudio Giovannesi is directing James Franco in Hey Joe
Francesco Di Napoli and James Franco in Hey Joe (© Greta De Lazzaris)

One of the most talented Italian directors of the last generation, Claudio Giovannesi is back on set after previously making Piranhas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Roberto Saviano
film profile
]
. The title won the Silver Bear in the 2019 Berlin Film Festival for Best Screenplay, which he penned alongside Maurizio Braucci and Roberto Saviano. His first solo fiction feature, Alì Blue Eyes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claudio Giovannesi
film profile
]
, was presented at Rome Film Fest where it scooped the Special Jury Prize, while his second, Fiore [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Claudio Giovannesi
film profile
]
, was selected for Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

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Playing the lead in Giovannesi’s new film, Hey Joe, is the eclectic US actor, director, screenwriter and producer, James Franco. The Californian actor is playing a US veteran from New Jersey called Dean Barry, who had a relationship with a Neapolitan girl during the Second World War. It’s the beginning of the ‘70s and upon the news of this woman’s death, Dean decides to return to Naples in Italy to get to know his son. He’s looking to make up for a 25-year absence, but his son is now a man, he’s grown up in the world of the mob, he’s been adopted by a smuggling boss and he has no interest in his American father.

Starring alongside James Franco - who’s continuing to work in the European film industry following his role in the French-Belgian movie The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile
]
- are youngsters Francesco Di Napoli (previously involved in Piranhas), Giulia Ercolini and Aniello Arena (who also appeared in Fiore).

"Hey Joe is a film about the consequences of war and about the relationship between the USA and Italy, told through a father and son relationship”, explains Giovannesi, fresh from shooting the film in Naples and the island of Procida, Taranto in Apulia, and between Pizzo beach and the Sila mountains in Calabria.

Written by the director in league with Maurizio Braucci and Massimo Gaudioso, Hey Joe is produced by Palomar together with RAI Cinema, in collaboration with Vision Distribution, Sky and Netflix. The movie will hit Italian cinemas on 28 November, courtesy of Vision Distribution.

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(Translated from Italian)

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