Greenaway-Hoffman film Tower Stories stuck between two competing cuts — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Peter Greenaway's film "Lucca Mortis," starring Dustin Hoffman as an adopted New York writer contemplating mortality, was shot in Lucca, Tuscany starting late 2023 on a €15m (£12m) budget across 25 locations — but now exists in two competing unfinished cuts and has been retitled "Tower Stories."
- Facing East, the production company (whose credits include the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man), allegedly produced its own more "commercial" cut of the film without Greenaway's involvement, claiming entitlement due to budget overruns — despite the director's contract granting him final cut; Facing East declined to comment.
- Swiss private financier Jumpy Cow Pictures provided most of the €15m budget, supplemented by Italian and Dutch tax rebates; a first assembly cut delivered in late 2024 was reportedly "warmly received" before the dispute escalated.
- The city of Lucca expressed frustration through councillor Remo Santini, noting the municipality received a positive sneak preview months ago but has had no contact from production since filming wrapped more than two years ago; the title change to Tower Stories partly reflects officials' reluctance to associate the city with death.
- Greenaway's screenplay takes as its starting point philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein's claim that "death is not an event in life" and frames the film as a drama — not a horror picture — about a writer returning to Italy to confront mortality against the backdrop of 9/11.
- With Greenaway now 84 and Hoffman 89, production sources warn that delay endangers any chance of either being fit enough to properly promote a release, while distributors and festivals may balk at screening a Greenaway film over which he did not have final say.
Why it matters: The standoff threatens to bury what sources describe as one of Dustin Hoffman's most poignant later performances and a potential swansong for the 84-year-old Greenaway, as each month of delay narrows the window for both men to champion a release. The producers' willingness to override a final-cut clause to impose a more "commercial" edit also signals a financing risk for future auteur-driven independent projects backed by private money.
Ask SkimNews
