Netflix Vice President for Italian Originals Eleonora Andreatta, affectionately known as Tiny, is justifiably proud of what the streaming giant has achieved. Ten years after its launch in the country, Netflix leads the SVOD pack with more than 8 million subscribers, according to the Italian Communications Agency.
As Netflix celebrates its first 10 years in Italy, Andreatta, who joined the company in mid-2020 as vice president of Italian original productions after a long and successful career as head of drama at national broadcaster RAI, highlighted the fact that around 50 Italian original productions shot across the Italian peninsula are now in Netflix’s global top 10. Furthermore, he underlined the fact that strong ties have been forged with Italy’s talent and, ultimately, with Italy’s cultural DNA. On the way.
“These interactions, sometimes by pure chance, say a lot about our relationships with talent,” she told Variety.
Andreatta likes the fact that Netflix is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Italian serial killer series “Monsters of Florence.” Directed by genre specialist Stefano Sollima, the film will be released worldwide on October 22nd, starting in Venice. The director, best known for Sky’s gritty TV hit Gomorrah, also directed Sabulla, the first Italian film to be licensed by Netflix before the service launched in 2015.
But in the case of A-list actor Alessandro Borghi, Netflix’s relationship building was “more deliberate,” Andreatta said. Borghi starred in Netflix’s first Italian original series, Suburra (a spin-off of the film), and the true crime film On My Skin, the first Italian film commissioned by the service after Netflix dropped the service. This harrowing police brutality drama was released simultaneously in Italian cinemas and on Netflix in 2018, sparking controversy from Italian distributors who wanted it to be released in theaters. Borghi recently played porn icon Rocco Siffredi in Netflix’s “Supersex,” which Andreatta says is “one of the most provocative and interesting series we’ve ever started.”
Another Italian star whose career is closely tied to Netflix’s Italian journey is Benedetta Porcaroli, who broke out in 2018 playing a high school girl living a double life in Baby, Netflix’s second Italian scripted series, a show about teenage prostitution in Rome. Porcaroli then landed the plum leading role in “The Leopard,” a sumptuous tale set in Sicily, which became the streamer’s biggest splash in Italy to date. Most recently, Porcaroli has been cast in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Netflix show The Gentleman 2, which was partially filmed in Italy.
Andreatta noted that among Italy’s older generation, Netflix “had the honor” of working with screen legend Sophia Loren, who returned to acting in 2020 with The Life Ahead, an intimate Italian original directed by her son Edoardo Ponti.
As Netflix celebrates its first decade in Italy and becomes increasingly active in nurturing a new generation of local talent, Andreatta speaks to Variety about the streamer’s milestones in Italy and its vision for the future.
What are your first memories about Netflix in Italy and what goals did you set when you joined?
“Suburra” (Netflix’s first Italian original) was co-produced by RAI, where I was head of drama at the time, as a minority co-producer. I remember a moment when I was sitting in the same room as a Netflix executive at the time. He showed me the English dub (of “Suburra”) and a big taboo came down. There was a taboo that made it impossible for Italian products to enter the international market, especially the English market. It really felt like something big was happening. So my joining at Netflix was really tied to the realization that, as a commissioning editor, I could create great authentic stories, bold Italian stories, with a platform that was willing to experiment in terms of language and format.
What titles are you looking at?
Essentially, since 2020, Netflix has proven its potential for growth, ambition, and diversification of its services in terms of genre and visual language. 2021 was a landmark year for director Paolo Sorrentino’s most personal film, The Hand of God. These were the years we experimented with new forms of documentary. In 2020, we launched the documentary series SanPa: Sins of the Savior, which follows controversial drug rehab founder Vincenzo Muccioli. This was followed by “The Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi” (about the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican official). Both represent an innovative form of documentary in Italy, mixing real crime with public outcry. In 2021, we began experimenting with adult animation in the short form in collaboration with Italian graphic novelist Xero Calcare, who taps into the zeitgeist. In 2022, we launched “Everything Calls Salvation” (YA drama), which focuses on the new theme of mental health, targeting the young generation that is emerging due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In terms of the birth of various genres, the historical crime drama “Lydia Poe’s Law”, about Italy’s first modern female lawyer, stands out. do you agree?
Yes, “Lydia” is one of the titles that is loved not only in Italy but all over the world. This represents our desire to give period dramas a modern feel and tell stories of strong female characters that remain etched in people’s memories as they are imperfect heroines or anti-heroines.
Let’s talk about “The Leopard”, Netflix’s biggest show in Italy so far. How did that happen?
The Leopard was born about a month after I joined Netflix. I remember that the producer (Fabrizio Donvito of Indiana Productions) had the rights to the book. It was July 2020, the days between lockdowns. I called him. He was driving on a mountain road and had to stop the car. I said to him, “I remember you have the rights to ‘The Leopard.’ We need to talk.” The project had to be done in a way that had not been possible before in Italy. Performing “The Leopard” in Italian was an ambition I wanted to achieve at all costs. In Italian literature, there aren’t that many IPs that can make it to the screen. Tommaso di Lampedusa’s novel, which looked at the unification of Italy from the perspective of a 20th century writer, had an interesting modernity to me. It was also about a period of transition, where the past is no longer ours and the future is yet to be defined. I really like this idea.
The production cost for “The Leopard” is said to have been approximately $50 million. Will Netflix make similar investments in Italian originals in the future?
An important part of Netflix’s strategy is that stories can come from any country. So it’s part of the strategy. Our investment decision is based on the fact that we deeply believe that telling Italian stories is important for Italian audiences and for Netflix services around the world. Therefore, we will continue to invest, as always, with the same conviction, the same determination and the will to boldly and ambitiously continue to develop projects that are relevant to our audiences. Our ambition for individual projects as ambitious as The Leopard remains the same. “The Leopard” was born in 2020 and hit screens in 2025. Therefore, extensive development efforts are required. But certainly we always have ambitious projects in our pipeline, and we always consider their scale.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
