Telecinco, Mod join Castellitto's 'World'

MADRID -- A couple of Spain's most ambitious film production companies, Telecinco Cinema and Mod Prods., took minority equity stakes in Bosnian war drama "Venuto al mondo" (In to the World), which stars Penelope Cruz and it is helmed by Italo thesp Sergio Castellitto. "World" informs the storyline of the single mom who returns to Sarajevo together with her teenage boy to manage yesteryear she distributed to her late husband. Film adjusts exactly the same entitled best-selling novel by Castellitto's scribe-actress wife Margaret Mazzantini. The Italia-The country co-production also teams Italian clothes Medusa Film, Alien Produzioni and Picomedia. Beyond Cruz, pic's worldwide cast is brought by Emile Hirsch ("Killer Joe") and Anglo-Gallic star Jane Birkin. Lensing began August in Sarajevo and ongoing around the Croatian coast. Now filming in Rome, it'll subsequently visit Bosnia. Telecinco Cinema, the film production arm of The spanish language broadcasting group Mediaset Espana, and Fernando Bovaira's Mod will lead cast plus some key tech talent plus co-financing. Pic will be prepared for theatrical release by fall 2012. Wild Bunch handles "World's" worldwide sales privileges and can release "World" in France. Medusa will distribute the film in Italia. Castellitto, among Italy's most highly-regarded as thesps, already directed Cruz within the drama "Don't Move," which gained her the 2004 David di Donatello award on her lead performance. Telecinco and Mod already joined last year on Alejandro Amenabar's historic drama "Agora," toplining Rachel Weisz. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com