EXCLUSIVE: In what will be her first film promotion appearance in a good long time, Amber Heard is set to appear at the 69th Taormina Film Festival for the world premiere of In The Fire. Heard will be in Sicily along with the film’s director Conor Allyn and co-star Eduardo Noriego. The film will premiere June 24 at the Teatro Antico di Taorina. The fest takes place June 23-July 1, 2023 in Sicily.
In the Fire is described as a supernatural thriller that stars Heard as a pioneering psychiatrist who sets out to treat a desperate child at a time when psychiatry is not yet a respected science. Set in 1899, the film follows a 38-year-old American psychiatrist as she arrives on a rich farm in Colombia after being called to solve the case of a disturbed child following increasingly insistent accusations that the child is the devil. While the woman tries to psychoanalyze the child, the nefarious events intensify and her “cure” becomes a race to save the little boy from the fury of his fellow citizens, and perhaps, even from himself.
Amber Heard
Previous works from Allyn include the IFC Films western No Man’s Land starring Frank Grillo, George Lopez and Andie Macdowell. Allyn also previously directed Netflix Originals Walk. Ride. Rodeo, and he was executive producer on I’m No Longer Here.
It will be the first film promoted by Heard after a legal battle with former husband Johnny Depp. Now, Heard’s priority is to put the attention on her film career.
The festival’s newly appointed Executive and Co-Artistic Director, Barrett Wissman, announced the lineup for the 69th Taormina Film Festival earlier this month, with additional screenings and events to be added. The event, which has a rich history as one of Italy’s premier festivals, is now on the comeback trail after some quieter years. Past premieres include La Dolce Vita, The Godfather, Braveheart, Mission Impossible, Inglourious Basterds and many more.
Among the Taormina slate is the Italian premiere of the James Mangold-directed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, with Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, and Mads Mikkelsen in attendance. Also on the slate is the Edoardo Leo/Massimiliano Bruno-directed The Worst Days; the world premiere of Billie’s Magic World, directed by Francesco Cinquemani and featuring Alec Baldwin, William Baldwin, Valeria Marini, Mia McGovern Zaini, Soraya Azzabi, and Elva Trill; the international premiere of Sundance pic Divinity, directed by Eddie Alcazar, the world premiere of Lo Sposo Indeciso, directed by Giorgio Amato; the Italian premiere of the Lisa Cortes-directed Little Richard: I Am Everything; the Italian premiere of A Thousand and One, directed by A.V. Rockwell and featuring Teyana Taylor; and the Italian premiere of Cannes opener Jeanne du Barry, directed by and starring Maïwenn alongside Johnny Depp.
The festival will also feature a career retrospective on John Landis, and Willem Dafoe and director Abel Ferrara, including showings of the seven films they made together. Taormina will also fete the 90th anni celebration of Warner Bros, showing 25 of its greatest films over the last 90 years.
The festival opens with the Pavarotti Forever opening gala at the Teatro Antico di Taormina, benefitting the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation. The evening will feature clips of concerts and documentaries over the years, with special guests and luminaries from both the operatic and pop world. Bella Thorne will curate a gala evening of short films.