Exactly twenty years ago, Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino shot his directorial debut “One Man Up” in his hometown of Naples. Just four years later, Sorrentino won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film for “The Great Beauty.” In recent years, Sorrentino has had his hand at directing television, with the Jude Law-led “The Young Pope” in 2016 and “The New Pope” in 2019. After his notably successful career over the past two decades, Sorrentino will finally return to his hometown of Naples for the first time to direct “The Hand of God,” which he also wrote.
“The Hand of God” will be developed and produced by Lorenzo Mieli, Mieli’s company The Apartment, and Netflix. Although there is limited information available about the actual plot of the film, it’s highly speculated that the story will revolve around the famed Argentinian soccer player Diego Maradona. In fact, Maradona was actually a character in Sorrentino’s 2015 film “Youth.” (Sorrentino also thanked Maradona in his Oscars acceptance speech, so it’s safe to say the connection is there.)
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Sorrentino described his excitement for his latest outing, “‘The Hand of God’ represents for the first time in my career an intimate and personal film, a novel of formation at once light-hearted and painful… The mutual understanding between myself and Teresa Moneo, David Kosse, and Scott Stuber from Netflix on the meaning of the film was immediate and dazzling. They made me feel at home, an ideal condition because this is precisely what this film means to me: going back home.”
Netflix’s head of films Scott Stuber praised his newest collaborator, “Paolo is an incredible storyteller who has cemented his place on the world cinema stage. ‘The Hand of God’ is a personal film that is taking him back to Naples, his hometown, and is a beautifully written story in his signature style.”
Stuber continued, elaborating on Netflix’s approach to producing and distributing international cinema, “To build a great film studio you need great filmmakers from every part of the world, telling stories in all languages… We’ve been growing our international film business over the past year and look forward to bringing Paolo’s story and so many others to a global audience.”
This is, of course, reminiscent of the role Netflix played for Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” in 2018 and for Fernando Meirelles “The Two Popes” last year – just to name a couple. It’s nice to see Netflix continue to support and expand accessibility for international cinema.