News : Luciano Pavarotti Biopic Planned by ‘Quo Vado?’ Producer and Late Tenor’s Widow Nicoletta Mantovani, Penned by ‘Gomorrah’ Writer (EXCLUSIVE)

Prominent Italian producer Pietro Valsecchi (“Quo Vado”) is developing a high-end Luciano Pavarotti biopic for which he has secured a consulting agreement with Nicoletta Mantovani, the second wife of the late great tenor who broadened the audience for opera and became a global pop culture icon.

A screenplay for the Pavarotti project is being penned by ace Italian screenwriter Leonardo Fasoli, a head writer on the series “Gomorrah” which is Italy’s top TV export.

Mantovani, who established the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation after the maestro’s death at 71, in 2007, is providing the project with documents, rare images, private letters, mementos and more from the archives of the foundation and museum in the Northern Italian city of Modena that was Pavarotti’s home.

As part of the agreement, Mantovani “will be actively involved in every aspect of the project, contributing first-hand to the narrative and artistic construction of the film,” according to a statement.

Born in 1935 in Modena into a working-class family – his father was a baker, while his mother worked in a cigar factory – Luciano Pavarotti developed a passion for opera as a child thanks to his father, an amateur tenor. Thanks to his vibrant signature high C’s and a knack for showmanship he became the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Enrico Caruso and one of the few opera singers to attain crossover fame.

“Luciano had a big dream, which was to bring opera back to the people, because when he was a kid opera was sung in the streets and was just like pop music today,” Mantovani told Variety.

Pavarotti pursued this dream through the Three Tenors projects, a collective enterprise that saw him share the stage with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and his ‘Pavarotti and Friends’ charity concerts, performing with rock stars such as Elton John, Sting and Bono.

Valsecchi, who shepherded Italy’s biggest all-time box office hit, the 2016 comedy “Quo Vado,” said he is seeking an Italian actor to play the lead and will soon be announcing a director for the project that will differentiate itself from Ron Howard-directed 2019 doc “Pavarotti” by having a “more Italian soul” while being “clearly universal.” The plan is to shoot the still untitled Italian and English language Pavarotti biopic in several countries.

Valsecchi is currently shopping the project to streamers and international buyers.