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Robert Folk, the composer for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, is set to produce and score a film about Rudolph Valentino, the heartthrob of Hollywood’s early silent era, starring Isabella Rossellini and the voice talents of Franco Nero.
Folk, who has dozens of film scores to his credit, including those for Police Academy and The Never Ending Story II, is teaming up with Los Angeles-based Russian director Vladislav Kozlov.
Timed to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Italian-born Valentino’s death in 1926, the feature will incorporate material already shot for a short version due to be screened next month at New York’s Italian Film Festival.
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Valentino was one of cinema’s first sex symbols, gaining a massive following for his roles in such films as The Sheikh in 1921.
Interest in the period was revived four years ago when Michael Hazanavicius‘ tribute to the silent era, The Artist, won best picture and four other honors at the Oscars.
Folk, who was in Moscow this week for talks to close financing for the $7 million feature with Russian investors, said most of the material for the feature has already been shot.
The pic, which Folk is producing with Russian partners Leonid Lebedev, Dmitriy Pristanskov and Yuri Ponomarev would be “a hybrid” mixing both silent episodes and some scenes with dilagoue, he told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The setting is a movie theater where Valentino is watching his old movies, seeing his life on screen. Much of the film has already been shot in Los Angeles and we now need to do some scenes in New York City to finalize it,” said Folk.
The movie, in which Valentino is played by Kozlov, whom Folk said bore “an uncanny resemblance” to the screen star, is planned to be ready for theatrical release by November.
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