Cucinotta, Beijing Ciwen team on romcom

ROME -- Inside a rare China/Italia co-production, Italo muli-hyphenate Maria Grazia Cucinotta ("Il Postino") has partnered with China's prominent Beijing Ciwen Film and television Production on the romcom that they will star in, occur China and Sicily. Shooting is placed to begin in April in Chengdu -- capital of China's Sichuan province -- around the pic working entitled "C'e sempre not perche" (There's Always grounds). Plan's to then slowly move the shoot from China to Sicily, where regional funds have established yourself. Cucinotta, that has forged close Chinese ties as juror from the Shanghai Film Festival this past year, will have an Italian innkeeper who becomes entangled having a Chinese guy. A-list Chinese talent continues to be completed, out of the box pic's helmer, who will probably be Italian. Cucinotta's Rome-based Seven Dreams production is shepherding "Reason" with Beijing Ciwen, the studio behind Tsui Hark's fighting techinques epic "Seven Swords." An old Bond girl in "The Planet Isn't Enough," Cucinotta more lately starred in Alfonso Arau's "The Secret within the Sheet," which she also created. Meanwhile, proclaiming to Cucinotta's growing activity like a producer, shooting began March 5 in Rome on "Tulpa," a higher-profile giallo -- an italian man , thriller genre -- by Federico Zampaglione ("Shadow"), starring Italo A-listers Claudia Gerini and Michele Placido, also being created by Seven Dreams. Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com