Production on Borgia, the ambitious new film project by Oscar-winning Irish screenwriter and director Neil Jordan, is set to go ahead now that a new financing source is in place.
The original financier, Myriad Pictures, withdrew from the project two weeks ago in a dispute over budget levels. Yesterday it was announced that the Initial Entertainment Group, which played a key role in financing Martin Scorsese's imminent film, Gangs of New York, has stepped in to refinance the project.
Borgia, a $55 million epic about the notorious Renaissance family - Lucretia, Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI - will feature an international cast led by Ewan McGregor, Christina Ricci, Jean Reno, Antonio Banderas, John Malkovich and Ian McKellen.
Shooting will get under way in October in Italy and at studios in Germany. The film is being produced by Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey and Robert Zemeckis of the US company Imagemovers, along with Company of Wolves, the production company run by Mr Jordan and his regular producer, Stephen Woolley.