Fellini's vanishing act to become film

It was late March 1957 and Italian director Federico Fellini was in Los Angeles to attend the 29th Academy Awards to be held at the RKO Pantages Theatre. Fellini's film La Strada, starring his wife Giulietta Masina and Anthony Quinn, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. Fellini had never been to America before and he was looking forward to the trip. Two days before the ceremony, however, he disappeared from his hotel and barely made it back before the award show. Where did one of the world's greatest filmmakers go? What did he do?

Writer/director Henry Bromell has some ideas and is making a feature film, Fellini Black and White, about what may have happened during those 48 hours. Fellini detours from the glitz of Hollywood into the real city, discovering jazz, surfing, and love. Bromell intends to use this mysterious time as a significant artistic turning point in Fellini's career, symbolizing when the director turned away from neo-realism in favor of fantasy.

Brazilian actor Wagner Moura has been cast to play the maestro and William H. Macy, Terrence Howard, and Peter Dinklage have also secured roles. No word yet, though, on who will play Masina.