Oscar Winner Gabriele Salvatores Shoots Chess Noir With Toni Servillo and Sebastian Koch

Gabriele Salvatores starts shooting "La variante di Lüneburg" in Trieste, a chess-world noir he wrote and directs from Paolo Maurensig's novel, with Toni Servillo, Sebastian Koch, Damian Hardung, Eduardo Scarpetta and Thomas Prenn, Cinemaitaliano.info reports from the production's release. Raffaella Leone and Andrea Leone produce for Lotus Production, part of Leone Film Group, with Rai Cinema, in association with Vice Pictures, Indiana Production and MDE, and with support from the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission; the shoot runs nine weeks between Trieste and Rome, 01 Distribution releases in Italy and Rai Cinema International Distribution sells abroad. Salvatores calls it a duel of more than 40 years fought on a chessboard, and chess "the most violent sport there is, and perhaps the least cinematic".