Don Matteo 14 will be done. Raoul Bova will return as Don Massimo. In an interview with Fanpage.it, screenplay supervisor Mario Ruggeri revealed all the secrets of the new season: when the cast will return to the set to start filming, when it will be broadcast on Rai1 and some previews. Then, he told the behind the scenes of Terence Hill’s departure and the arrival of Raoul Bova.
The new season of Don Matteo with Raoul Bova
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Don Matteo 14 will be done. Raoul Bova will return in the role of Don Massimo. The extraordinary success in the ratings recorded by the fiction with Terence Hill, Nino Frassica and Nathalie Guetta demonstrated how the spectators are devoted, it should be said, to the events of the most sparkling rectory in Italy. And the Rai he will hardly give up on such a beloved series. But what is cooking in Don Matteo’s future? Fanpage.it talked about it with the script supervisor Mario Ruggeriwho revealed when the writing of Don Matteo 14 will begin, when the cast will be back on set for filming and when the new season between new entries and historical faces. Ruggeri, who has been working on the project since 2003, also told the behind the scenes of theTerence Hill’s exit from the scene and the arrival of Raoul Bova.
Don Matteo 14 will be done. I believe there is no doubt about it. Have you already started writing the fourteenth season?
Not yet. We wait for the latest audience figures and then we have a reflection time of six months. In the meantime, we also take care of other projects.
Don Matteo 13 is back on TV with a double date: the series aired on Tuesday 17 and Thursday 19 May
How do you imagine Don Massimo’s future? Give me a little preview.
If there is one thing that Don Massimo has similar to Don Matteo it is being a sort of traveling angel. More than changing him, it is he who changes others. Dramaturgically, it will be much more important to think about those who will be around Don Massimo and what his mission will be towards these people.
Do you take into account the possibility of Terence Hill returning in some episode?
Terence Hill will always be somehow present in Don Matteo, he put his spirit in this series. As Raoul Bova says, everything is possible. Raoul had great respect for the figure of Terence, he wanted to meet him, he asked for his blessing. There are no jealousies or envy between them.
When will Don Matteo 14 air and when will filming begin?
I imagine it will air in 2024. We will be back on set in March of 2023.
Will there be any new entries in the new season?
Yes. We have pivotal characters who never change. Around this nucleus made up of Cecchini, Natalina, Pippo and now Don Massimo, the world can change. The captains have also alternated over the years. Maria Chiara Giannetta? She will be the protagonist of Blanca’s new season, you always have to deal with reality. I don’t know if there will be, but I hope so. I always hope everyone is there, I’m a conservative.
Raoul Bova and Terence Hill play Don Massimo and Don Matteo
The finale of Don Matteo 13 will be broadcast on Thursday 26 May. What should we expect?
In the last episode of Don Matteo 13 you will discover an important link between Don Massimo and Don Matteo. The true mystery of their relationship will be revealed, it is no coincidence that the episode is titled Forgetting Matthew. Furthermore, we will know why Don Matteo was investigating, he was looking for the culprits. The spectators will have important answers and will understand what Don Massimo will have to learn.
Also the 13th season has obtained great feedback in the ratings. What is the secret of this series that resists the passage of time?
It has always renewed itself. In the beginning there was just the detection, a couple of comedy scenes and nothing more. Now, with a 15-year process, we have arrived at a much more complex structure: there is detection, comedy, sentimental, teen lines. The series has modernized, is in step with the times.
He started working on this series in 2003. Despite the years of experience I think it was not easy to manage Terence Hill’s exit.
It was complicated because it happened in fieri. We ran out of time. We started thinking we had to do the whole series with Terence Hill, then they told us that it would only be there for four episodes and that we would have to introduce a new character. We worked fast, but then everything got stuck.
Don Matteo’s goodbye in the thirteenth season
How did you plan Don Matteo’s final bars? Was there a confrontation with Terence Hill too?
Terence Hill had asked us not to make a sensational exit. He wanted to vanish into thin air like the mysterious knight, leaving behind a letter. A slightly western release. We decided to take advantage of the problem of finding ourselves in the middle of a series with the change of protagonist. We came up with this idea of making us believe that Don Matteo had been kidnapped by Don Massimo. We used the latest installment of Terence to launch Raoul’s arrival and bring the two characters together.
Raoul Bova’s was definitely a winning choice.
It was a great insight from the manufacturer. Raoul Bova is an actor who has perfect purity to play the role of a priest who brings hope, sweetness, that kind of worldview.
I think the way you told Don Massimo also helped Don Matteo’s aficionados to metabolize this passing of the baton.
We used a rhetorical mechanism that worked, which was to make all the other characters hate him at first (laughs, ed). But Don Massimo is so innocent and blameless, that in the end the spectators loved him. The public identifies with the point of view of Natalina and Cecchini. Through their eyes, they became fond of him.
Raoul Bova riding his motorcycle in the role of Don Massimo
Terence Hill had expressed a desire to replace the 10-episode series with 4 films. Do you think it would have been a viable path?
These are production issues, I don’t know. We started with the idea of doing ten episodes and the production company had already made an economic investment of several million euros. Stopping the production mechanism, making only four films was a bit difficult. There are contracts with a lot of people. But Don Matteo is not dead, he can return. In my opinion, even the idea of making a film every now and then doesn’t seem impossible to me.
On one occasion, she said that Terence Hill had asked her to be able to pedal more and talk less. Raul Bova, on the other hand, what requests did you make about her character?
One thing he asked of us, but without imposing anything, was to tell a farmer, Franciscan priest, tied to the earth, who would get his hands dirty. In fact we see him hoeing, taking care of the olive trees. Unlike Terence, who is more tied to heaven, he is more angelic.
Don Matteo, in fact, quoted the Gospel, was often in church. The impression is that with Don Massimo the element of spirituality has been mitigated. What is the reason for this choice?
The real difference between Don Matteo and Don Massimo is that Don Massimo has always been a carabiniere, not a priest. Little by little, priestly spirituality will also come. In one sentence I would say that he is learning to become Don Matteo. He brought the guilty to redemption. Don Massimo will have to learn how to do it.
Don Massimo, priest tied to the earth
Sometimes he has to make delicate decisions, such as giving up beloved characters. The death of Marshal Cecchini’s daughter and wife, for example, aroused discontent in the public.
Yes, but the public must always understand that we don’t have carte blanche. When we do a series I say: “Who do we have?”, Based on who is there or who is not there, I write. I give an example with another series that is close to my heart which is One step from heaven. Daniele Liotti is no longer there. I didn’t decide it, it was he who said he didn’t want to do it anymore. Then you have to find a way to get him out of the picture. I can write anything, but if the actor doesn’t want to do it or there isn’t … On Cecchini’s daughter, we had run out of that character.
This year there was the case of Laura Respighi, a character played by Milena Miconi. Why was it decided to bring on the scene the ex-husband Anceschi (Flavio Insinna) but not her?
It was done to give a conflict to Anceschi and his daughter Valentina. If there are no conflicts, there are no arcs of transformation. The most beautiful scenes, in my opinion, are those in which the two characters talk about their mother, about what they had to undergo and overcome. The pain of a man who has clung to his work, to a sense of duty, without being able to accept the failures of a daughter. And a daughter who has chosen her father and then finds herself fighting him. They are dramaturgical choices. I have to tell a story.