Isabella Rossellini. (Photo: Wexner Center)
Isabella Rossellini and Jeanie Drynan will topline writer-director Antony J. Bowman’s Arrivederci, due to shoot across central NSW and southern Greece early next year.
Billed as a “gut-wrenching but ultimately heart-lifting story”, the film will see Drynan star as Izzy Davies, a farmer’s wife who loses her husband to cancer. Knowing that it’s time to hand over the farm to her son and his family, she refuses to consider their plan to move her into a local retirement home.
Following a lifelong desire to go to Greece, she heads off on her “last adventure” and meets Francesca, an Italian opera diva (Rossellini) who will change her life forever.
Drynan (Muriel’s Wedding) also starred in Bowman’s 1999 film Paperback Hero, starring Hugh Jackman.
Arrivederci will be produced by Michael Robertson and Neal Kingston via their Thrills & Spills banner with production services in Greece by Argonauts Productions SA. Rick Selvage (The Wheel) will serve as EP.
Pre-production will begin in the next few months. Rossellini will only feature in the Greek shoot, due to take place in the Northern Hemisphere spring. It is the producers’ hope that international borders will be open by the then, though Australian crew to Greece will be minimal.