Rupert Everett and Malcom McDowell join Amazon’s Diamonds

Rupert Everett and Malcom McDowell have joined the cast of The Amazon heist series Everybody Loves Diamonds, which is originally produced in Italy, where the streamer on Tuesday also revealed a slew of unscripted local shows that are now on its Italian board.

Amazon’s previously announced high-end show follows a group of thieves led by Sicilian mastermind Leonardo Notarbartolo – played by Italian Kim Rossi Stewart – who managed to bypass the Antwerp Diamond Center’s advanced security system in 2003 and steal gems inside Steal value of more than $100 million. Everett and McDowell play supporting roles that will bring international weight to the high-end strand, which is being produced by Fremantle-owned Wildside and will drop worldwide in 2023.

Journalists got a sneak peek at Diamonds during a Prime Video presentation in Rome on Tuesday, where Nicole Morganti, director. of Amazon’s originals for Italy said that Amazon’s investment in Italian content is now “evenly split between unscripted and scripted content” as it unveiled a range of new content that is almost entirely unscripted.

New shows in Amazon’s Italian pipeline include a “LOL Xmas Special”, triggered by the massive success of the local version of streamer’s comedy show “LOL: Last One Laughing”; Season two of his Italian food travelogue Dinner Club; improv comedy show “Prova Prova Sa Sa”; a movie titled “Sono Lillo” featuring fan-favorite comic Lillo Petrolo bursting into LOL; a documentary starring Italian pop star Mahmoud; and another document entitled “Kobe – An Italian Story” about the late great NBA star Kobe Bryant, who grew up in Italy during his father’s life, Joe Bryant, played for several teams in the country. Produced by Indigo Stories of Italy, the “Kobe” doc is a pickup truck and was purchased by Amazon for play in Italy only.

“We managed to offer the Italians an alternative source of supply [non scripted] Entertainment, that’s something that [other] Streamers haven’t made it in Italy so far,” noted Morganti, who comes from the non-written side of the TV business, most recently at Discovery before joining Amazon in 2019. She declined to provide information about Amazon level of investment and the number of subscribers in Italy and also say that both are growing.

Amazon also broadcasts UEFA Champions League football in Italy.

“Last year it was all script

; this year we have a mix,” said Morganti, who added that Amazon will unveil more Italian-script original series in the fall.

Meanwhile, Prime Video’s original Italian young adult series Prisma revolved around identical adolescent twins who challenge gender norms in different ways, will launch from the Locarno Film Festival in August before a worldwide release this fall on an as yet undetermined date.

Davide Nardini, who directs the Italian scripted originals at Amazon, called the young adulta very important segment of the audience that offers many opportunities for storytelling and pointed out that “The themes in ‘Prisma’ have never before been covered in Italy.”