Newly-established local film company Cittadella Films Malta Ltd will soon start shooting its first film – Saul, a pilot episode for a TV series based on the Acts of the Apostles.
Depending on the success of the pilot, Cittadella hopes to produce another 12 episodes, making up the first season, to be shot entirely in Malta between May 2014 and February 2015.
Saul is a Malta-Canada co-production, in collaboration with E-One acting as worldwide distributors. Out of the 26 cast members, 19 of them will be Maltese actors, including Larissa Bonaci, John Suda, Godwin Scerri and Joe Quattromani. John Rhys Davis, Kyle Schmidt and Emmanuel Vaugier are among the foreign stars taking part.
Production management, production design, editing, music, visual effects and post-production will also be handled entirely by Maltese artists and technicians . The script and direction is in the hands of Maltese writer/director Mario Philip Azzopardi, who is also the CEO of Cittadella Films.
“After a spate of biblical films on American TV, there seems to be a resurgence in interest in biblical themes,” said Azzopardi.
“This movie and the series is a fictionalised retelling of the origins of the Christian Church, based on the Acts of the Apostles with Paul of Tarsus (St Paul) and Mary Magdalene as the main protagonists.
“The series will follow them jointly, or separately as the two face prejudices, persecution and dangerous situations while struggling to help the other apostles who, as history tells us, were not always very cooperative) to help set up the fledgling Church and spread the word of Christ. It is not a history lesson nor is it a religious sermon. It is TV Bible-based entertainment.”
Cittadella Films will also co-produce three made-for-TV movies together with Leiffilms of Toronto between February and June 2014.
“These films, like Saul, are very low-budget movies. We are not talking about budgets like those spent by the producers of Troy or Gladiator. Our budget is probably equal to their coffee budget!”
After a spate of biblical films on American TV, there seems to be a resurgence in interest in biblical themes
Azzopardi explained that such productions constitute around 70 per cent of the film industry’s main product. It provides constant employment and is what most of the industry depends on.
Countries all over the world vie for big-budget movies by offering tax rebates and equity investments. TV, however, is “a voracious monster” needing constant new programming.
The company’s most ambitious project perhaps is a co-production with Berkshire Axis media of Toronto, Canada. The three-season The Knights of Malta has been in development for the last 14 months and will be entering into pre-production by summer next year to shoot in early 2015.
Negotiations for the series will be closing imminently with a major German distributor and a leading British TV production company. Development has been made possible by funds from the Malta Film Fund, Cittadella Films and Berkshire Axis Media.
The executive producer is Fred Fuchs, who was one of the producers of The Godfather: Part III. Azzopardi and Peter Horton wrote the first episode, while the rest of the episodes are being written by an international team of writers.