Cannes: Content Media Boards Noomi Rapace’s Maria Callas Biopic

Niki Caro’s biopic of Maria Callas, with Noomi Rapace set to star as the famed opera diva who had a two-decade affair with Aristotle Onassis, is hitting the Cannes market.

Content Media will represent worldwide rights to the film, and is launching Callas to foreign buyers at the Cannes film market, which gets underway May 13.

The movie is based on Alfonso Signorini’s biography Too Proud, Too Fragile, with Caro writing the adapted script. Caro (Whale Rider, North Country) was most recently in theaters with sports drama McFarland, USA. 

“This movie is about an extraordinary woman whose deepest desire is to lead an ordinary life with the man of her choice,” said Guido De Angelis, president of Italy’s De Angelis Group. “Callas was la Divina, a goddess, who just wanted to be a normal woman, but she found out she couldn’t.”

De Angelis is financing and producing Callas alongside New York-based Belladonna Productions, the U.K.’s Ealing Studios and Londinium Films. 

President of Content Jamie Carmichael said, “We fell in love with Callas instantly. It’s such an emotional and powerful story of one of the world’s great romances – and we’re certain that audiences around the world will be charmed and entranced by the passion, beauty and operatic splendor of this epic tale.”

Rapace is represented by CAA and Magnolia.