A new version of Oscar-winning classic The Garden Of The Finzi Contini is to be produced by top Italian producer Carlo Degli Esposti under his Palomar label.

The new film is not intended as a remake of Vittorio De Sica's 1970 masterpiece, but is rather a new adaptation of Giorgio Bassani's novel with a screenplay written by Bassani himself. The film will be shot later this year or early 2003 and will be made for television. But as with other of Degli Esposti's pictures it has a chance of a theatrical release.

Degli Esposti was in attendance at MIP-TV in Cannes to present his latest offering, the mini-series Perlasca, which it was announced will receive theatrical outings in Hungary through Focus Film and in Spain through Fortuna. The Euros 6m Perlasca is the story of an Italian who pretended to be a Spanish diplomat in order to save 6,000 jews from extermination in Hungary during WWII. Directed by Alberto Negrin, Perlasca is sold by Raitrade and was co-produced with Hamster Productions of France, SVT Fiktion of Sweden and Focus.

Degli Esposti is also preparing an untitled picture about Italians who dug a tunnel under the Berlin Wall and Enrico Calamei, a biopic of the Italian consul in Argentina during the time of military rule. RAI, which recently broadcast Perlasca to a 42% audience share, is expected to board both productions.

Palomar is 51% owned by Endemol Entertainment, with Degli Esposti holding the outstanding minority shares.