In an interview with newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism Dario Franceschini spoke of an ambitious project about the renovation of Cinecittà.
As the Minister stated: «the hypothesis we are working on is that the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti group enters Cinecittà. This will allow Cinecittà to be given an area as large as the one currently occupied by the studios. An area owned by Cdp, which borders on Cinecittà and which would make it possible to double the space and at the same time to bring in an industrial partner, or Cdp or its companies. We are building the conditions for an absolute leap in quality: a large industrial operation for Italy and Rome. It is not out of place to speak of a European Hollywood».
In the same interview, Franceschini also talked about the transformation from Srl to SpA of the Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, to which the studios have belonged since 2017; this passage, according to Franceschini, will be an opportunity to open up to other public entities, in addition to MiBACT and Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
Among the other issues addressed during the interview, the “Netflix for culture” project, which could be integrated with the one of Cinecittà and finally a declaration on tax incentives for cinema: “starting from 2016 the fund for cinema, which feeds tax credits, has reached 400 million euros. This year to deal with the emergency we added 150 million, so as to bring the tax credit rate from 30 to 40%. With the Budget Law, the resources of the cinema fund increased by 240 million, rising to a total of 640 million a year. This will allow us to structurally maintain the tax credit at 40%“.
