Fear has gripped the Cinecittà studios in Rome (Italy). A fire broke out on a papier-mâché set, Monday August 1, which recreated the Florence of the Renaissance. The fire, which emitted thick black smoke visible for several kilometers, broke out around 3:30 p.m., firefighters said on Twitter. Entirely destroyed, the set was being dismantled.
This incident has raised fears of the worst, in this period of historic drought. Fortunately, “The fire has been extinguished. There are no injuries, no poisoning, no serious material damage”, announced a spokesperson for the studios, Marlon Pellegrini, in a press release. The sets for the sequel to the mini-series The Young Popeby Paolo Sorrentino, as well as those of a reality show, were saved, reports Corriere della sera (in Italian)after fears about them.
Three teams of firefighters were needed to contain the fire quickly, before it spread to other sets. The origin of the disaster is still unknown at this stage, but the preferred track is that of an accident. In 2007, a spectacular fire had already ravaged a warehouse housing sets for the Anglo-American television blockbuster Rome recounting the birth of the Roman Empire.
Many classic masterpieces have been filmed in the “Cinema City”, such as Ben Hur (1959), by William Wyler, and the DolceVita (1960), by Federico Fellini. In the 1970s, the boom in television productions and the crisis in cinematographic productions had put an end to the golden age of Cinecittà, which would experience a long passage through the desert. Privatized, then returned to public control in 2017, the studios again welcomed foreign productions in the early 2000s.
They unveiled a 260 million euro development plan last year with the ambition to become by 2026 “an important European cinematographic pole”, betting on series and TV programs. This plan provides in particular for the doubling of the surface area of the studios, the creation and renovation of sets, the construction of an indoor swimming pool and a theater with a 360° green screen.