Fuzz on the Lens <\/a>Productions and actors, including Michael Leavy, Antoinette Crowe Legacy and Michael Barra to bring the film to life.<\/p>\nFrom an app to production <\/p>\n
Provenzano\u2019s new film idea began as a note he wrote on an app on his phone a decade ago \u2014 a place he keeps ideas for movies, short films or podcasts. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always had these ideas. One was about someone who opens a restaurant that gets flocked by mobsters, but I could never really find a hook,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
That changed when he created a character named Roberto, inspired by Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni.<\/p>\n
Provenzano said his character Roberto is an \u201ceternal optimist with an excitable ball of energy\u201d who embodies the spirit of Italian heritage. As the film idea continued to grow, he realized he had to involve pizza.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat encapsulated all of this was to make the entire thing about pizza, which, to me, is silly, tongue-in-cheek, very comical, and not meant to be taken seriously. As soon as I came up with the pizza hook, I knew I had a funny enough idea to write a story around it,\u201d Provenzano said.<\/p>\n
Not your average mob story<\/p>\n
I Dream of Pizza stands out because it\u2019s not a film centered around the mafia. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t consider it a mafia movie. I would consider it a character piece,\u201d Provenzano said. \u201cIt\u2019s about Roberto, about dreaming, about passions, and about letting them overtake you \u2014 what it means to live a life filled with pursuing a goal and following a passion. Mobsters are just a backdrop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Provenzano said the difference between his film and mob classics like \u201cGoodfellas\u201d or \u201cThe Godfather\u201d is that Roberto accidentally stumbles into the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cImagine a character who has no earthly business being there just accidentally stumbles into it. It\u2019s about him \u2014 Roberto,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shaped by experience <\/p>\n
Provenzano says his past experiences shape the way he approaches his films today. After graduating from college, he realized that if he wanted to make movies and tell stories, he needed real-world experiences to draw from.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt influences it in every way imaginable because it\u2019s not just experiences on set, but experiences in my entire life,\u201d he said. \u201cSo if all I know is about making movies, then what do I do about that?\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that he needed to \u201chave a life outside of that scope of creating, of directing, of being on set constantly if you want inspiration to strike you.\u201d That\u2019s how he got the idea for his new film, \u201cI Dream of Pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n
Influenced by the Island <\/p>\n
Born and raised on Staten Island in an Italian American family, Provenzano said \u201cit would be hard not to be influenced by Staten Island.\u201d <\/p>\n
He described his upbringing in a close-knit \u201cvery stereotypical Italian American family\u201d and said it\u2019s impossible not to let \u201cthe blood of the Island\u201d influence his projects.<\/p>\n
While the film is set in New York City, he said although the borough isn\u2019t explicitly named, anyone from Staten Island would likely recognize it. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to me to showcase that this came from Staten Island, not Hollywood or Manhattan,\u201d Provenzano said.<\/p>\n
From horror to comedy <\/p>\n
Looking back on his previous work as an editor and collaborator on horror films like the \u201cTerrifier\u201d series, \u201cScreamboat\u201d and \u201cStream,\u201d Provenzano said he\u2019s somewhat familiar with comedy, thanks in part to longtime collaborators Fuzz on the Lens Productions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe folks who are producing this film, Fuzz on the Lens, they\u2019re pretty horror-centric. But at the same time, I\u2019ve known them for over 10 years, and the first film they made that made a big splash was a comedy. It was called \u2018Abnormal Attraction,\u2019\u201d Provenzano said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve always wanted to be more involved with comedy, so with this film, I Dream of Pizza, it\u2019s kind of giving all of us the opportunity to showcase our entire range in the sense that we\u2019re not just horror guys anymore. We can do anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For over 12 years, Fuzz on the Lens Productions has been creating films, starting with childhood theater and home movies, then progressing to a variety of projects including short films for their high school TV studio and full-length documentaries and films in college. <\/p>\n
The Staten Island-based production company is widely known for its work in indie horror films and has been a key partner with Provenzano in bringing \u201cI Dream of Pizza\u201d to life.<\/p>\n
Stepping into the director\u2019s chair <\/p>\n
Since childhood, Provenzano has been invested in making movies, working with cameras and directing. Throughout high school and college, he created and directed short films, entering them into festivals. Later, he became an editor on well-known horror films like \u201cTerrifier,\u201d but he still wanted to fulfill his dream of directing full-time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized in the last few years that the only way I\u2019m going to achieve a goal like that is to just kind of shut up and do it. So that\u2019s why I think this is the right time for a directorial debut on this scale,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For \u201cI Dream of Pizza,\u201d he said he intends it to be shown in theaters and countrywide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is me essentially introducing the entire world to my voice, and not just my voice but everyone \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of really talented people working on this. I want to showcase all of our efforts and passions. We\u2019re not just this little backyard ragtag group of filmmakers anymore; we\u2019re really painting on a big canvas here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pre-production underway <\/p>\n
Provenzano said the team is still raising the remaining funds needed to begin full production and filming. They\u2019re planning a 17-day shoot with a brief segment filmed in Italy. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe first 10 minutes of the film take place in Italy, and we wanted to very bravely show that at the very beginning of the film we\u2019re not in somebody\u2019s backyard, but we\u2019re in Italy. We\u2019re not a small shoestring budget; we actually went to Italy and filmed this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
What viewers can expect <\/p>\n
\u201cI list it as a comedy-drama. For audiences who want to know what this will be like, expect something silly, a little tongue-in-cheek, but also very heartfelt and sincere,\u201d Provenzano said.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cIt\u2019s like a slice-of-life kind of film, where you\u2019re just following this character, and as long as you like the main character, you\u2019re on board. The main character of Roberto is a very hard character not to like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Provenzano said he also wants to showcase the best of Italian cuisine, especially pizza. <\/p>\n
Island talent<\/p>\n
For Provenzano, sharing his upcoming film with Staten Islanders is important to him as he wants to give back to the community artistically. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to showcase that the art community on Island has risen so considerably in the past 15 years, in the past 10 years. With Pete Davidson and Impractical Jokers, and Colin Jost, but also Fuzz on the Lens Productions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a bad reputation but at the same time, we\u2019re filled with such wonderful creators…I think that\u2019s really important to me that we can do it if we just work hard,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 After more than a decade working on horror films, South Beach native Matt Provenzano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-133449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}