For the first time in 18 years, the Italian filmmakers Pupi and Antonio Avati will return this month to the Quad Cities, to shoot part of their ninth film project set in the QC, for a portion of their new thriller, “The Backyard.”
The multiple award-winning Avati brothers (Pupi, 85, is director and Antonio, 78, is producer) will be arriving from Rome, Italy with a shooting schedule of Feb. 12 – 17, 2024, in Davenport. Specific filming locations have not been announced.
Dennis Hitchcock and Tom Walljasper, the local casting directors, are having an open call, at 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 8 at Circa ’21, 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island, for the two roles listed below. Please bring a recent photo and resume.
Descriptions of the “non-union, payscale” film roles are:
- SMALLER SPEAKING ROLE (1 day shoot) — Elderly Woman (65-75) with a hunched back.
- BILL GREEN, FEATURED EXTRA (1 day shoot) — A very large blond man (30-40) with a noticeably large derrière. Has a passionate kiss with his bride.
“We are thrilled to be working with the Avatis again,” Denny Hitchcock said Tuesday. “It’s great fun to be able to hire local actors for film roles. This film is dark, in the tradition of Pupi’s earlier projects. Shooting has been taking place for several weeks in Italy.”
The local shooting will be in Davenport Feb. 12, through the 17th, when they return to Rome to finalize shooting.
“The Backyard” is described as a “gothic” film, based on a novel written by Pupi Avati. It’s the story of a young psychopath who aspires to be writer and happens to fall in love at first sight with a young nurse of the US Army, according to the Tuesday casting notice.
We’re in Bologna, Italy, and we’re near the Allied Liberation during World War II. All it took for this young man to fall in love were fleeting glances with Barbara, the beautiful nurse, and he thought she would be the woman of his dreams, the synopsis says.
One year later, he finds himself at home in a modest house in the American Midwest, with a nefarious back yard separating his house from that of his beloved Barbara. However, she doesn’t live there anymore. The only one remaining there is her elderly mother, distraught at her daughter’s loss. With the end of the conflict in Italy, Barbara wrote she was to marry an Italian man, but there was no more news of her after that letter.
Arianna, his beau’s sister, crosses the ocean searching for her, but comes back pretending Barbara’s dead, and proceeds telling so to everyone. At that point, the young man begins searching for clues of the woman, until, after a dramatic spinning of events, he’ll find its unsuspected conclusion in Italy.
The Avati brothers have filmed several movies in Davenport and the QC, and Pupi has called the area “the America of Frank Capra,” QC film and media consultant Doug Miller said Tuesday.
The Avatis have made the following films here:
- 1990: “Where the Night Begins” and “Bix”
- 1991: “An American Love” (TV movie co-starring Brooke Shields)
- 1992: “Brothers and Sisters”
- 1993: “The Room Next Door” and “The Childhood Friend” (which co-starred Jason Robards III)
- 1996: “The Mayor of East Chicago”
- 2006: “The Hideout” (co-starring Burt Young and Treat Williams
For auditions for “The Backyard,” address any questions to dpjh@circa21.com.
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