Rome Fiction Fest unveils lineup
TV fest to show 'Medium,' 'Doctor Who'
By NICK VIVARELLI

The Rome Fiction Festival on Friday unveiled the lineup for its second edition featuring a more tightly focused showcase of international skeins with a decidedly higher Hollywood profile, including galas for "In Treatment" and "Medium," and "Cashmere Mafia" screening in the main competish.

Artistic topper Steve Della Casa, who replaced Felice Laudadio, is reshaping the ambitious sister event to the Rome Film Festival to give it a greater populist feel, but also a bit more edge.

The Eternal City's TV fest now has a non-competitive Noon@night section that will comprise yank helmer Sean Michael Beyer's teen horror telepic "Resurrection Mary," the BBC's revived "Doctor Who," and tributes to "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman," for which Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner will be on hand.

Helen Mirren is making the trek to Rome for a special HBO gala for Channel 4's "Elizabeth I" mini and also to be feted by the fiction fest with a career nod.

Other special events include CBS sitcom "Big Bang Theory," which airs on Mediaset's pay TV channel Steel in Italy, with talent Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco in tow.

Italo standouts include the previously announced world preem of Italo auteur Liliana Cavani's "Einstein" biopic from RAI Fiction, and of Mediaset's "Anna e i cinque," about a daytime nanny who works nights as a stripper.

U.S. helmer Godfrey Reggio will head the jury of the fest's docu and docudrama section, called Factual, which includes ABC's "Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery." The other juries are all made up of non-professionals.

International industryites expected at the fest for former Banff fest topper Pat Ferns' trademark Market Simulation pitch sessions include HBO senior VP of production Len Amato, TNT/TBS VP of series programming Lillah McCarthy, and BBC drama co-productions and acquisitions chief Jesse Cleverly.

The deep-pocketed event, boasting an $11.5 million budget, runs July 7-12.

Preems of Italian dramas will unspool in the Auditorium Conciliazione, near the Vatican, while the nearby Cinema Adriano plex will showcase mainstream action series in the evening and segue into thrillers, horror, sci-fi and other youth-oriented fare at midnight.