Oh, And It’s Not Based On Boccaccio’s Novellas
Apparently, Woody Allen‘s forthcoming, Italy set “Bop Decameron” was too confusing for some people, so the jazz loving, Euro hopping director has gone ahead and changed it to something worse, and still baffling. His next movie will now be called: “Nero Fiddled.”
For those of you still scratching your head, Nero is the Roman Emperor infamously known to have “fiddled while Rome burned,” in the blaze he himself was accused of starting. What bearing this has on Woody Allen’s film we suppose we’ll find out eventually, but the helmer doesn’t seem pleased to have been forced to make the change. Moreover, it seems everyone was wrong about what the movie was based on too. “I couldn’t believe how few people had heard of the Decameron, even in Rome,” Allen said in a statement. “And the few that did assumed the movie was based on Boccaccio’s tales, which it’s not. Anyhow, I changed the title to ‘Nero Fiddled,’ which is the first time I’ve changed a title since my last minute switch of ‘Anhedonia‘ to ‘Annie Hall.’”
Anyway, the movie boasts a massive ensemble including Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Roberto Benigni, Judy Davis, Greta Gerwig and Alison Pill along with Italian thesps Antonio Albanese, Fabio Armiliata, Alessandra Mastronardi, Ornella Muti, Flavio Parenti and Alessandro Tiberi. The film will include four unconnected vignettes, two of which involve American characters in the city, the other two involving Italian cast members—and it seems likely that the latter two segments will actually be in Italian. But maybe not.
Now when Allen tells you the title is “Nero Fiddled,” just pretend it sounds great and makes sense. No release date yet, but it will land in 2012. [Variety]
