U.S.-based Italian director Mitzi Peirone’s comic horror thriller “Saint Clare” has been set as the opening night film of Italy’s upcoming Taormina Film Festival with protagonist Bella Thorne in attendance.
“Saint Clare” follows Peirone’s debut, the horror film “Braid,” which launched from Tribeca in 2018.
Based on U.S. author Don Roff’s novel “Clare at Sixteen,” “Saint Clare” is set in a small town where “a solitary young woman is haunted by voices that lead her to assassinate ill intended people and get away with it, until her last kill sucks her down a rabbit hole riddled with corruption, trafficking and visions from the beyond,” as the provided synopsis puts it.
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Peirone co-wrote the “Saint Clare” script with Guinevere Turner (“American Psycho”). Thorne stars in the lead with Ryan Philippe (“Crash”) and Rebecca DeMornay (“Wedding Crashers”) in supporting roles. The film is produced by David Chackler, Arielle Elwes, Joel Michaely. The original soundtrack is by Zola Jesus.
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“Saint Clare” will world premiere on July 13 at Taormina’s 8,000-seat open-air ancient Greek amphitheater in the shadow of Sicily’s active Mt. Etna volcano.
“We couldn’t have dreamed of a better debut for our oneiric film than the gorgeously historic Taormina,” said Peirone in a statement. “We are elated and humbled, especially for a picture that delves into spiritual beauty, female sainthood and fate, there is no better home in the world than Sicily,” she added.
Also, as previously announced, “Minari” filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung’s hotly anticipated “Twisters,” the sequel to the 1996 storm-chasing blockbuster starring Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton, is set to have its Italian premiere at Taormina which is being relaunched under the artistic direction of former Venice Film Festival chief Marco Mueller.
The 70th edition of Taormina will run July 12-19.