ROMAN FILM CITY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 260, 1 October 1936, Page 9

ROMAN FILM CITY.

IL DUCE’S HOLLYWOOD. £2,000,000 OF U.S. MONEY. Italy has thrown down the gauntlet to Hollywood. After a long period of obscurity in film production, she is now busy building Cmelandia, a film city two miles south-east of Rome. There an attempt will l>e made to produce films for the English-speaking markets. Tho work is being hurried forward. The first film made will be “Scipione Afri-. cano,” to celebrate the foundation of the new Italian Empire in Africa. Signor Mussolini has approved of the subject because Scipio Africanus was a builder of the Roman Empire. In this new citv, to be built on a 106-acre site, the walls of ancient Carthage are rising in cement and ancient Roman temples are taking shape. The city must be ready on October 28, b eca »se that is the anniversary of 'Hie Fascist “march” on Rome in 1922. Mr Walter Wagner, the Hollywood producer, who is much interested in the project, which is being supported by £2,000,000 of American capital, has promised to make this film. Signor Mussolini lias done a great deal to smooth the way for American enterprise. There is another problem. The views of the Hoi v. See on what constitutes a good film do not always coincide with the interests of the booking office, says a Rome correspondent. By virtue of the Concordat whereby the Holv See and the Italian State sealed their act of conciliation in February. 1929, Rome is defined as the “good" city because in it resides the Pontiff of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. As a good city it must bo kept free from immoral amusements. This clause is by no means a. dead letter.