‘Is death necessary?’: why Peter Greenaway’s assisted dying drama is stuck in post-production hell

Exclusive: Three years after filming began on the contentious Lucca Mortis, starring Dustin Hoffman, the British director is still in dispute with producers over which version to release, and a battle over rights rumbles on Peter Greenaway’s new movie was supposed to mark a glori

Exclusive: Three years after filming began on the contentious Lucca Mortis, starring Dustin Hoffman, the British director is still in dispute with producers over which version to release, and a battle over rights rumbles on Peter Greenaway’s new movie was supposed to mark a glorious swansong for him and his lead actor Dustin Hoffman, the Oscar-winning star of The Graduate and Tootsie. Both men were in their 80s when shooting began in Lucca, Tuscany, in late 2023. Neither knew the storms ahead or that this was going to turn into arguably the most troublesome project in Greenaway’s career.

Turn the clock back to 2023 and Greenaway, who has been based in the Netherlands for the last 20 years, could hardly conceal his excitement during a Q&A at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the huge art deco Tuschinski theatre in Amsterdam in November 2023, after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the festival. He told the audience that he would be flying to Italy the next morning “and that, all being well, we will start shooting seriously in the next couple of days”. Continue reading...