Berlusconi movie plan shelved

Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino has shelved plans to make a biopic about Italy’s former Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi, says the Hollywood Reporter.

Fresh off the success of the September premiere of his TV series The Young Pope in Venice, Sorrentino announced the film project, titled Them (Loro), meant to be a balanced, not overly critical look at the controversial media mogul turned politician.

But now he says his focus is on writing the second season of The Young Pope, and only once he finishes the script will he turn his focus back to his next project in cinema.

“I wanted to write a script for a film about Berlusconi, but it is a complicated story, and it is not always possible to do the film that you want to do,” said the director in an interview.

After selling globally, The Young Pope premiered in Italy to record-breaking numbers. It will premiere on HBO in the U.S. in January. The cinema director has seemingly fallen in love with creating for television and has announced that he hopes to continue The Young Pope for as long as makes sense.