Florence: the city of Michelangelo, Dante and a popular sandwich filled exclusively with boiled cow intestine. Some people live here all their lives; others are just passing through.
“Dirty Old Town” aims to be the Next Big Thing from Florence, a grittier-than-usual 45-minute television pilot headed up by actor, writer and director Tim Daish. Nine fictional characters strive to make their lives (slightly) better, whilst making some terrible life choices on the way.
The idea was developed out of Daish’s actors’ workshops, which gradually became short film scripts for different characters, and now has the backing of production company Fresnel Multimedia.
Daish: “To begin with we were developing characters that could exist in any city… and indeed, these characters probably could. Dirty Old Town is a term that could apply to many districts of many cities, but here we are in Florence; it is at the very least the canvas for the scenes, although this won’t be your average tourist-generating love letter. What we have are interwoven stories of dreamers and the sub-optimal life choices that they make along the way, although I’m not a huge fan of comparisons with other shows, script readers have commented that there are elements of ‘Shameless’, ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, and ‘The Office’”.
Production on the pilot episode began in March 2017 and the team are hoping to raise 5,000 euro via an Indiegogo campaign, to cover additional filming costs.
