Stanley Tucci will be starring alongside Simona Tabasco (The White Lotus) and Victor Belmondo (The Bardot) in the international heist film Master Plan, directed by Thomas Vincent (Reacher). The English-language film will be Prime Video’s first original French and Italian film.
Filming for “Master Plan” begins today in France and Italy. Gaumont, the esteemed French studio behind “Lupin,” is producing “Master Plan” in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios.
Tucci, who just finished filming The Devil Wears Prada 2, stars in The Master Plan as a legendary thief who targets Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting Mona Lisa, housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. He enlists the help of two young strangers, an astute Italian cybercrime expert named Chiara (Tabasco, who broke out in Season 2 of The White Lotus), and Jay (Belmondo), an intimidating French explosives expert, who later reveals that they are estranged brothers and that he is their father. “Thrown into a chaotic reunion they never expected, this new family must work together and try not to kill each other if they have any chance of pulling off the heist of the century,” the synopsis reads.
Vincent, whose credits include hit series The Bodyguard and Reacher, co-wrote The Master Plan with BAFTA-winning screenwriter David Wolstencroft for Spooks and The Escape Artist. Stories by Giacomo Duruzi, Alessandro Fabbri, Alberto Vignati, David Wolstencroft and Vincent. The film will be available exclusively on Prime Video in over 240 countries.
In an interview with Variety ahead of Mipcom, Nicole Morganti, head of local originals at Amazon MGM Studios in Southern Europe, and Thomas Dubois, head of local originals at Amazon MGM Studios in France, said the “master plan” highlights their companies’ joint ambition to create southern European content that achieves global scale.
“Master Plan” taps into the increasingly popular heist genre and whets the appetite for escapist cuisine with a glamorous backdrop. But there’s also a subplot that revolves around family, which Dubois says can “cross borders.”
“The film is full of twists and turns, but Thomas Vincent also wanted to make a film about family, which gives it depth,” Dubois says. Meanwhile, Morganti is open to Tabasco playing an “incredibly intelligent, amazing woman.”
Regarding Tucci, Dubois said his name came up early in the conversation for the lead role because “we needed someone with a lot of nuance.”
“When Thomas Vincent and I started talking about casting, Stanley Tucci was one of the first names we all agreed on, because we were like, ‘He’s a very special person.’ And luckily, after he read the script, he said yes very, very quickly,” Dubois added.
Morganti said Tucci is an American actor, but like the thief he played in “Mastermind,” he is also “one of the greatest experts on Italy and France,” noting that he shot part of “Citadel” in Italy.
Morganti said the Master Plan builds on France and Italy’s long tradition of co-production and the rich talent pool in this region of Europe.
“Thomas and I both believe that Southern Europe has the potential to become an incubator for more global content, and this project gives us the possibility to show how French and Italian producers and creators can actually produce ambitious English-language content for the world,” Morganti asserts.
Thomas, on the other hand, “knows that in France and Italy there is a savoir-faire in film and television production, and that by combining creative forces, a certain level of production and ambition can be achieved,” Dubois said. From an industrial perspective, he continued, the co-production will also allow Prime Video to “streamline the cost of a very ambitious project.”
International co-productions between multiple broadcasters can sometimes lead to so-called “Euro pudding,” but Dubois and Morganti say they made the project feel “organic and authentic” by first “bringing France and Italy into the story.”
The international feel of the Master Plan comes from its abundance of locations, Dubois said, citing Rome and Paris as well as the Louvre. The involvement of Gaumont, which has a strong track record in France and Italy, was another key element in ensuring the film’s authenticity, Dubois said.
In fact, France’s Prime Video has collaborated with Gaumont on a number of titles, including the recent action film “Carjourkers” and the heartwarming drama “Once Upon My Mother,” co-starring Leila Bekhti and Jonathan Cohen. In Italy, Prime Video will release a Christmas movie in collaboration with Gaumont in November, Morganti said.
Morganti said there will be more co-productions in the future, as “local producers were excited to hear that the first French and Italian original films would be released on Prime Video.”
The streamer has successfully expanded into Italy’s English-speaking world with “Hotel Costiera,” starring “Grey’s Anatomy” alum Jesse Williams as a half-Italian former U.S. Marine. The show, which takes place in a luxury hotel on the Positano coastline, just hit number one on Amazon Prime Video in the US over the weekend.
“‘Hotel Costiera’ shows the level of our ambition to create southern European English-language content that resonates around the world with a different flavor than what is produced in the United States,” says Morganti. Another notable English-language show in Morganti’s pipeline at Prime Video is the series “Postcards From Italy,” currently filming with “Kalpa Mia” star Nicole Wallace and director Jessica Yu. The Bill Murder Case” and “The Morning Show.”
