Fandango Sales Takes International Rights to Galileo Biopic

Fandango Sales has taken all international rights to "Galileo," a film about the astronomer Galileo Galilei, and is presenting it to foreign buyers at Rome's MIA Market, Variety reports.

International rights are the rights to show a film outside its home country, and whoever holds them decides who sells it abroad. Fandango Sales is the sales arm of the Italian company Fandango, and it will now be the one taking the film to cinemas and streamers in other markets.

Elio Germano plays Galileo. Roan Johnson both directs the film and wrote the screenplay. Fandango will release "Galileo" in Italy.

The film has a budget of €8 million, about $9 million. It is produced by Bibi Film with RAI Cinema, the film arm of Italian public broadcaster RAI, and with the participation of HBO Max, the streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.

Filming began in late September and will run through November, so the picture is still being shot.

Raffaella Di Giulio, Fandango's head of international sales and acquisitions, is leading the pitch. MIA, short for Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo, is the Rome gathering where sales companies show upcoming projects to distributors and broadcasters from around the world. Deals struck there often decide which films reach which countries, sometimes well before a finished print exists.

Fandango Sales also handles films from other producers, not only its parent company's titles. That mix is common for sales agents, who earn a share of what they sell and so have an interest in carrying a range of projects.

For buyers, the next question is simple: which territories will pick up "Galileo," and when. Those answers usually take months to arrive.