“It’s one of our most ambitious projects”, Amazon Studios’ Head of Italian Originals Nicole Morganti insists. Shot over the course of six months in Antwerp, Rome, Turin and Sardinia, in a variety of spaces, costumes and time-periods and with substantial funding support, Everybody Loves Diamonds, the new Prime Video original Italian heist series, toplined by Kim Rossi Stuart, will drop on the global streaming service next spring. Two additional heavy-duty cast members have also been announced: British actors Rupert Everett and Malcolm McDowell.

Directed by Gianluca Maria Tavarelli (Break Free, Don’t Make Any Plans for Tonight, and the director of various TV series including The Young Montalbano), the series is based on the 2003 “Antwerp Heist”, the largest diamond robbery in the world, carried out by Palermo-born Leonardo Notarbartolo and his gang on the night of Valentine’s Day, who circumvented the impenetrable security system which protected the vault of the Flemish city’s Diamond Center. The value of their haul was over 100 million dollars.

“I really loved playing this Gascony-born character who is basically pure, and determined to carry out the heist of the century”, enthused Rossi Stuart (whose many roles have included that of the Milan-based criminal Renato Vallanzasca in Angels of Evil [+lire aussi :
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fiche film]; he was recently seen in The Best Years [+lire aussi :
critique
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fiche film], was awarded the 2007 Davide di Donatello trophy for Best Emerging Director thanks to Along the Ridge [+lire aussi :
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interview : Kim Rossi Stuart
fiche film], and was selected in Venice 2016 by way of Tommaso [+lire aussi :
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Anna Foglietta, Gianmarco Tognazzi, Carlotta Antonelli and Leonardo Lodi star as thieves alongside Rossi Stuart, and re-enact this extraordinary criminal feat. Concerning Everett and McDowell’s participation in the series (the former recently seen in She Will [+lire aussi :
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interview : Charlotte Colbert
fiche film] and soon appearing in My Policeman and Lead Heads, the latter recently seen in The Walk, Father Stu and She Will), which will heighten the series’ international appeal, Tavarelli explained that: “These are two actors who not only bring their notoriety to the series, but also their considerable acting expertise. Both of them will measure themselves up against Kim in lengthy verbally challenging dialogue while sat face to face at a table”.

Everybody Loves Diamonds is produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa on behalf of Wildside (of the Fremantle Group), and written by Michele Astori, Stefano Bises, Giulio Carrieri and Bernardo Pellegrini. The series will be distributed in over 240 countries and regions around the world via Prime Video in spring 2023.