Johnny Depp’s "Modi" Adds New Cast Members As Shoot Gets Underway in Hungary

Italian actress Luisa Ranieri has joined the cast of Johnny Depp’s upcoming Amadeo Modigliani bio-pic "Modi" as shooting gets underway in Hungary.

Modi is Depp’s second feature in the director’s chair after his 1997 feature "The Brave".

Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio plays the titular painter and sculptor, with previously announced cast members including Al Pacino, in the role of art collector Maurice Gangnat. Ranieri will play Rosalie Tobia, the owner of a Paris cafe frequented by impoverished artists, who took Modigliani under her wing when he was down and out.

“Luisa Ranieri, is among one of Italy’s most talented actresses, with the portential for international success,” Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino said in a statement released to Italian news agency Ansa.

The production put out a statement on Wednesday confirming further fresh cast additions: Stephen Graham (The Irishman, Boiling Point), Bruno Gouery (The White Lotus, Emily in Paris), Ryan McParland (Halo, Calm with Horses), Benjamin Lavernhe (Jeanne du Barry, The French Dispatch) and Sally Phillips (Love at First Sight, Bridget Jones Trilogy). Other previously announced cast members include Antonia Desplat.

Ranieri’s arrival on the picture comes a week after Depp and his cast and crew set down in Budapest for the start of principal photography on the movie, prompting numerous celebrity sightings and posts showing the location sets on Hungary’s social media networks.

The movie chronicles the life of Italian artist Modigliani in World War One Paris. His desire to prematurely end his career and leave the city is dismissed by fellow bohemians: French artist Maurice Utrillo, the Belarusian-born Chaim Soutine and his English muse and lover, Beatrice Hastings. Modi seeks advice from his Polish art dealer and friend Leopold Zborowski, but the chaos reaches a crescendo when he’s faced with a collector who could change his life.

The production is shooting in streets around Budapest’s Károlyi Garden, which are doubling up for the streets of the French capital in the 1910s, as well as its Buda Castle.

Local production in Budapest is handled by Proton Cinema. The Veterans handles international sales.