After winning most critics (including ours) over with his Gallic adventure in “Midnight In Paris,” Woody Allen is to continue his ridiculously prolific run averaging a film a year taking his European holiday to Rome. Tentatively titled “Bop Decameron,” the project is loosely based on a collection of 14th century novellas by Giovanni Boccarccio and boasts a star-studded cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz and Roberto Begnini.
Now, after playing the mother of Javier Bardem‘s children in Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s “Biutiful,” Argentinian theater actress Maricel Álvarez has reportedly joined the cast of Allen’s latest, which ironically stars the real-life mother of Bardem’s child, Cruz.
No word on who Álvarez — who we featured in our Breakthrough Female Performances of 2010 — will be playing but we presume it’ll be a European part in one of the four unconnected vignettes, two of which will feature American characters in the city with the other two involving Italian cast members. As far as plot goes, that’s about as much information as you’ll probably get from an Allen pic this early on and much remains to be answered. Are the two Spanish-speaking thesps doubling as Italians? Is Begnini one of the leads of the Italian vignettes? Will Allen follow through with his claim that he’ll also be returning as an actor for the first time since “Scoop“? The guessing game continues. [ScreenDaily]
