Fanny Ardant and popular Italian actor Michele Placido are to star in a new picture from acclaimed theatre-film director Mario Martone (Nasty Love).

Named L'Odore del Sangue (The Smell Of Blood), the picture tells the parallel story of two 50-year-olds who are both in relationships with much younger people. The film is produced by Donatello Botti's Rome company Bianca Film and Martone himself adapted the script from a book by Goffredo Parise.

It is Martone's first feature film since 1998's Il Teatro della Guerra (Rehearsals for War), and but it is also one of a host of hotly awaited new Italian features currently in the works.