Melodia, who died of cancer on Dec. 2 at 46, had been instrumental to the quantum leap that Lux — and, by extension, Italian TV as a whole — has made in the international market over the past decade. started out at Lux in 1999 as a junior story editor, cutting her teeth first on ancient Rome mini-series ““Don Matteo,” the hit local show about a crime-busting priest that launched in 2000 and still reaps stellar ratings on public broadcaster RAI 20 years and 12 seasons later.
Lux CEO Luca Bernabei fondly recalls how Melodia was hellbent on getting Shirley MacLaine to play the“She travelled to the U.S. to convince the co-producers [Lifetime Network] to totally change the script,” says Bernabei, who adds that “the clincher” in getting MacLaine on board “Coco” as the lead was “the work Sara had done on the story.”“A story meeting with Sara was like playing tennis with a master,” says U.S.
here are very few people anywhere that have the ability to “work on storytelling, on casting, including negotiations, editing and even music.” And, she says, “almost none of them has the heart, the soul, the humor, the courage and the generosity of Sara.”