Oscar-winning U.S. director Jessica Yu (“Quiz Lady,” “Fosse/Verdon) is set to direct new Prime Video Italy original series “Italian Postcards” about a spoiled young New York heiress who is sent to Sicily by her grandfather to work in the family real estate business.
The English-language show – the cast of which is being kept under wraps – will feature a still unspecified “famous U.S actor” playing the grandfather, said Nicole Morganti, who is Prime Video’s head of originals for Southern Europe, as well as a young U.S. star, and two Italian talents “who speak really good english,” she revealed.
“Italian Postcards” was unveiled during a Prime Video Upfronts presentation held on Thursday in Rome.
Prior to the presentation Morganti spoke to Variety about her strategy for Italy and why “Italian Postcards” is emblematic of her shift towards focussing on the young-adult audience segment.
The upcoming Italy lineup looks somewhat similar to previous years. Elevated content for what used to be considered a generalist audience. Do you agree?
Yes, our editorial strategy is super-broad and elevated. So, quality for the biggest audience possible. But within this basic idea of having a target that is really broad, we are now aiming for a much more young-skewed target. And you can see that from the lineup.
Why are you skewing towards younger viewers?
Because we have grown so much [according to Italy’s media watchdog AgCom Prime Video now has more than 7 million subs in Italy] and we have such a broad fan base right now. So, of course, when you grow so much and you’re so big, you want to skew towards the audience that is not maybe your core audience yet.
We’ve seen this in Spain with the lineup that we’ve created there, which is really successful. So now we are expanding this to the rest of southern Europe. A lot of the titles that we will announced in September from France will also be skewed towards young-adults.
What distinguishes Prime Video’s Italian editorial strategy?
The particularity from Italy is that the editorial strategy is divided in three buckets right now. We have the hyper local bucket, which has always been there. We started out by pleasing Italian audience, and we and do hyper-local [unscripted] shows, which is the entire entertainment component, with a lot of new titles that are [a mix of] pre-existing formats like “The Traitors Italia” or totally original ones like “Roast in Peace” and “Red Carpet – Vip al Tappeto,” now in its second season. These always work incredibly well. We started with unscripted, it was super successful, showing that a streamer can do unscripted in a different way from linear TV and we are continuing with that hyper-local part.
Then we have the hyper-local for scripted and movies which is epitomised by the film “Il Ministero dell’Amore” (“The Ministry of Love”) which is so absolutely Italian, with so many references to [Italian] politics and love and how these two things have more in common than we actually thought.
Talk to me about the second bracket: Italian-language movies and shows for the international market
And this is more about the Felicia Kingsley title “No Place to Be Single” which is an IP that is very big not just in Italy, with an Italian cast and Italian creativity that we are going to export around the world. It really has the support from Prime Video international. It’s going to be launched at the beginning of the year, in the first quarter. And we are very satisfied with it. We think it can travel and we have more Italian movies and scripted content.
Ok, let’s discuss the third bracket: content that stems from Italian creativity for the global market in English-language
We started developing it two years ago. And finally, we are out there with our first title of this type: ” there with the first title, “Hotel Costiera” coming out on Sept. 24. It’s Italian creativity, but for global and in English. So it’s about international cast with, of course, Italian writers, Italian actors, but not just that. So American actors [the lead is Jesse Williams], American directors, international cast from the U.K., France, and Spain. Italy is the perfect setting, and it’s the place to nurture a more global creativity. So we have “Hotel Costiera” coming up. Then we have “Love me, Love me” which is the first IP by Italian writer Stefania S [which has scored 12 million reads in Italy]. We are working super close with her as we did with “Culpa Mia” author Mercedes Ron in Spain, further expanding our push into the young-adult space that started from Spain. Then there is “Italian Postcards” on which we will be working rising Italian actors. We are going to have brand new faces working with Academy Award-winning director Jessica Yu (“This is Us”). So [Emmy-Award-winning] Adam Bernstein for “Costiera,” Roger that is nother thing more of that, because in Italian postcards, we have one of our star that we are creating with these shows. So as we have in lovely, lovely Mia Jenkins, super brand new faces and Luca Malucci, super brand new faces. We did the same with Nicole Wallace on culpa, and now she’s a superstar. And we are working with all these, you know, actors also another title, and we are, and we want to do the same thing with Italian Posca. So we’re going to have brand new faces there. We’re going to set that show in Italy. Have a great Academy Award director, Jessica Yu So Adam Burstein for Costiera, Roger Campbell (“Cruel Intentions”) for “Love Me, Love Me” and Jessica Yu for “Italian Postcards” with Italian ideas, Italian concepts, Italian production companies, Italian writers, accompanied by American writers, or U.K. writers to create a truly, truly international slate.
Below are Prime Video’s main upcoming titles for the international sphere:
“Italian Postcards” – Prime Video’s new Italian original series to be directed by Jessica Yu (“Quiz Lady,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “The Morning Show”) follows the misadventures of Mia, “a young and spoiled New York heiress who is sent by her grandfather to Palermo, without money or luxuries, to work as a real estate agent in the family business,” says the provided synopsis.”Will an Upper West Side girl survive in Sicily without even a credit card?” Production on the film co-produced by Amazon MGM Studios with Gaumont Italia is set to begin in Sicily in coming months.
“No Place to Be Single” – Prime Video will be giving an international push to this Italian-language movie based on a bestseller by Italian writer Felicia Kingsley [that is her pen name]. The film is set in an idyllic Tuscan town called Belvedere in Chianti where everybody is either in a relationship or looking for their soulmate, except Elisa a single mother who runs Le Giuggiole vineyard. But the return in town of her childhood friend Michele “turns her life upside down and reawakens feelings she thought had been gone forever,” says the provided synopsis. The film is co-produced by Amazon MGM Studios with Italian International Film – Lucisano Media Group – and will launch exclusively on Prime Video worldwide in 2026.
“Love Me, Love Me” – This previously announced movie based on the eponymous bestelling novel from the four-book series by Stefania S., which has scored over 22 million reads on the Wattpad platform, is the tale of a 16-year-old named June, played by Britain’s Mia Jenkins, who becomes entangled in a love triangle with two boys who are best friends and uncovers hidden truths. It is co-produced by Lotus Production-a Leone Film Group company-and Amazon MGM Studios, with support from Wattpad Webtoon Studios, and will drop goballiy on Prime Video worldwide in 2026.
Leave a Reply