Prime Video on Friday released its first English-language Italian original, “Love Me Love Me,” based on the first novel in a four-book series by Italian author Stefania S. The novel has been read 24 million times worldwide on the Wattpad platform.
It will be interesting to see whether “Love Me Love Me” becomes a popular Italian TV export program.
Directed by American director Roger Kumble (“Cruel Intentions”), the YA romance centers on 16-year-old June, played by Britain’s Mia Jenkins (“Nerd Girl”), who moves to Milan and enrolls at an elite international school for a fresh start after the death of her brother.
There, June becomes embroiled in a love triangle with two boys who are best friends and opposites. One is Will (Luca Melucci), the perfect honor student in school. The other is Will’s charismatic best friend James, played by Spain’s Pepe Barroso (The Dying Ones), a troubled young man hiding a dangerous life through secret MMA matches.
Italy’s Leone Group produced Love Me Love Me in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios and Wattpad Webtoon Studios. Prime Video will release the film worldwide on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
“Starting with a story that has already garnered 24 million views on Wattpad means we have a global fanbase ready for the film even before its release,” said Nicole Morganti, head of local originals for Southern Europe at Prime Video.
She also noted that “Love Me Love Me” is a “perfect fit” with Prime Video’s global “young adult production strategy.” This strategy has paid off in recent years for streamers such as Spain’s Carpables trilogy, based on Mercedes Ron’s novels, which were just greenlit to be remade in the United States.
For Leone Film Group co-CEO Raffaella Leone, Love Me Love Me is part of a broader agreement between Leone’s Lotus Productions division and Wattpad Webtoons, the user-generated fiction and comics entertainment division.
Leone said he acquired the book when it had just been published on Wattpad, before it was printed in Italy with editors Sperling & Kupfer. They then turned it into a film for Prime Video, marking her company’s first foray into the YA space.
“Obviously, the cast is all very young,” Leone says. “The story is set in an international high school in Milan, so everyone speaks English, but the kids come from different countries and keep their accents.”
“So even though we have a common language, our ethnicity is still respected,” she continued.
According to Morganti, the film’s unique identity is also emphasized by its “highly sensual and alluring soundtrack, dream-like locations, and pop-fluorescent cinematography that reflects the emotional nuances that Stefania S. depicts in the novel.”
“This is a four-book story, and we obviously chose to read the whole story,” Leone said.
“I hope it does very well and that we can continue to tell this story.”
