A lawyer said he had been instructed to sue journalists Giorgio Mottola and Sigfrido Ranucci, as well as anyone who cooperated with them, in regards to the “false and gravely defamatory” report.
The report on the RAI State broadcaster programme claimed that Benigni's ambitious project to turn his studios outside Terni into a hub to rival Cinecittà had wasted a vast amount of public money.
The segment added that the project for Papigno Studios, where Benigni shot ‘Life is Beautiful’ and ‘Pinocchio’, had cost an alleged 16 million euros in local, government and European funding, and claimed that the film great had "run off" after the project allegedly fell through.
Benigni had unsuccessfully sought an injunction to stop the segment from going ahead, and is now trying to sue for defamation.
"What we are challenging is that the business operation was based on public funds and that Benigni then 'ran off' so as to avoid footing the bill,” Benigni’s lawyers said.
"In fact, it's not true that the operation enjoyed public funding, because the restructuring was done at Benigni's expense.
"And it's not true that our client fled after Papigno's failure to be relaunched, because the studios were bought by Cinecittà Studios, a company of Luigi Abete, Aurelio De Laurentiis and Andrea Della Valle."
The restructuring of Papigno Studios cost Benigni 7.4 million euros, while Cinecittà Studios paid off 5 million euros, meaning that Benigni made a loss in handing over the studios and still owes 1.1 million euros.
‘Who knows how much money I lost in it," Benigni himself told the programme.
