“Vanished Into the Night,” a thriller starring Annabelle Wallis and Riccardo Scamarcio as a divorced couple in southern Italy whose children get kidnapped for ransom, has rapidly risen to the top of the global Netflix chart in a rare milestone for an Italian film.
In “Vanished,” Wallis – who played the character Grace Helen in the series “Peaky Blinders” – stars as a U.S. psychiatrist who lives in Italy’s scenic Puglia region after her breakeup with Pietro, a man with a dark past played by Italian A-list actor Scamarcio. When the young children of this estranged couple go missing on the outskirts of the port city of Bari, Pietro connects with a criminal from his past on a dangerous mission to get his kids back home.
The elevated genre film, directed by the prolific Renato De Maria (“Hotel Fear,” “Paz!”) shot to No. 1 just days after dropping globally on July 11 on Netflix, where it is ensconced in the top slot among non-English films on the streamers’ most recent Global Top 10 chart dated July 8-July 14.
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More recently, on July 18, “Vanished” was the most viewed movie on Netflix, according to streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol.
“Vanished,” which mixes classic noir and family dynamics tropes – and is adapted from Argentinean thriller “Seventh Floor” (“Séptimo”) directed by Patxi Amezcua – is penned by ace Italian screenwriter and novelist Francesca Marciano (“A Brighter Tomorrow”) and Luca Infascelli (“The Catholic School”). Giacomo Durzi (“Baby”) serves as creative producer.
The thriller is produced by Roberto Sessa (“The Sea Outside”) via his Picomedia label, which recently joined the Fremantle fold when the company acquired Asacha Media Group which comprises Picomedia.
Sessa said in a statement to Variety that, besides being a “source of great pride,” topping Netflix’s global chart provides tangible proof that the international potential of movies “is determined by stories and quality and not just by language.”
“Seeing this little film conquer viewers all over the world reaffirms this notion,” Sessa added.
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