Cucinotta, Beijing Ciwen team on romcom

ROME -- In a rare China/Italy co-production, Italo muli-hyphenate Maria Grazia Cucinotta ("Il Postino") has teamed up with China's prominent Beijing Ciwen Film and TV Production on a romcom that she will star in, set in China and Sicily. Shooting is set to start in April in Chengdu -- capital of China's Sichuan province -- on the pic working titled "C'e sempre un perche" (There Is Always a Reason). Plan is to then move the shoot from China to Sicily, where regional funds are in place. Cucinotta, who has forged close Chinese ties as juror of the Shanghai Film Festival last year, will play an Italian innkeeper who becomes entangled with a Chinese man. A-list Chinese talent is still being finalized, as is pic's helmer, who is likely to be Italian. Cucinotta's Rome-based Seven Dreams production is shepherding "Reason" with Beijing Ciwen, the studio behind Tsui Hark's martial arts epic "Seven Swords." A former Bond girl in "The World Is Not Enough," Cucinotta more recently starred in Alfonso Arau's "The Trick in the Sheet," which she also produced. Meanwhile, attesting to Cucinotta's growing activity as a producer, shooting started March 5 in Rome on "Tulpa," a high-profile giallo -- the Italian thriller genre -- by Federico Zampaglione ("Shadow"), starring Italo A-listers Claudia Gerini and Michele Placido, also being produced by Seven Dreams. Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com