The story of Giancarlo Parretti, the flamboyant Italian waiter-turned-financier who bought MGM in 1990 and was ousted and indicted when his takeover deal for the Hollywood studio collapsed, is in early stages of getting the big screen treatment.
Independent Los-Angeles-based film producer Niels Juul (“Ferrari,” “Killers of the Flower Moon”) has tracked down Parretti, now 82, and living in the lap of luxury in a palazzo in his native Orvieto. Juul is at the Venice Film Festival shopping a screenplay for the Parretti biopic titled “The Lion of Orvieto.”
The “Lion of Orvieto” is penned by TV comedy writer Michael O’Rourke, who has worked with Sacha Baron Cohen on “Da Ali G Show” but has also written several unproduced dramas. “Lion” is based on extensive research and an unpublished book containing in-depth interviews with Parretti.
Raised in an orphanage before being adopted at the age of 6, Parretti’s ascent into high-stakes financial wheeling and dealing started when he became a head waiter in the Sicilian city of Syracuse and quickly moved into business during the 1970s by buying several hotels in the region, with what was rumored to be money from the Mafia, though he has denied this. Parretti subsequently partnered with Tuscan businessman Florio Fiorini. They became well-known in Italy for buying and selling a wide range of companies, from banks and insurance outfits to travel entities and real estate, building a small business empire “with very questionable and ‘creative’ accounting methods,” as the project’s promotional materials put it.
Parretti delved into show business in 1988, paying $200 million for the Cannon Group, a ministudio in Los Angeles that was on the brink of bankruptcy. He paid $160 million later that year for France’s Pathe Cinema, which owned 1,500 European movie theaters. Parretti and Fiorini then proceeded to pony up $1.3 billion to buy MGM from U.S. financier Kirk Kerkorian, with backing from French bank Credit Lyonnais.
Shortly after Parretti took control, Credit Lyonnais seized the studio, claiming that he was defaulting on loans and accusing him of financial wrongdoing. Parretti has always maintained that the bank conspired with him all along.
“I did some research and realized this could be one of the biggest stories about Hollywood and Italy ever,” said Juul, who described the film’s tone as “Get Shorty” meets “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
“Giancarlo Parretti’s story deserves his story to be told, not just because he is a larger-than-life character, but because it’s a really fun story about a side of Hollywood that doesn’t exist any more,” Juul added.
In Hollywood, Parretti lived in a 14-room Beverly Hills mansion decorated with paintings by Goya, Picasso and Miro. He rode around in a red Rolls-Royce and owned a mahogany desk once used by MGM boss Louis B. Mayer.
Juul noted that the real-life characters in the film, which is mostly set in the U.S., include Marlon Brando, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Ronald Reagan.
“We need to find our director, someone who has the vision for this. We think it needs to be someone from Hollywood,” Juul continued. “And then we want to find the right partner in Italy and in the U.S.”
Asked about what is the current legal status of Parretti, who at one point was a fugitive from U.S. justice, Juul said, “I don’t think he’s going to visit anytime soon, but he says he can go there.”
Pictured above: Giancarlo Parretti, left. Niels Juul, right.
Source Agencies
