Scripted

Filming has begun in Orvieto on Un Mondo Bellissimo, a new Italian drama series co-produced by RTI and produced by Giovanni Altieri and Costantino Margiotta for 7Verticale. The project marks the Italian adaptation of the acclaimed Korean format Beautiful World, originally broadcast on  JTBC.

The series will consist of eight 50-minute episodes and is expected to bring to Italian audiences an emotionally charged family drama centred on truth, justice and the devastating consequences of a mysterious accident involving a young boy. In the original Korean version, the story follows a family searching for the truth after their son finds himself suspended between life and death. What begins as a personal tragedy gradually becomes a wider investigation into responsibility, silence and the hidden fractures of a community.

The Italian adaptation stars Vanessa Incontrada and Ettore Bassi, two familiar faces of Italian prime-time fiction. The adaptation has been written by Leonardo Marini, Debora Alessi, Andrea Leanza and Marianna Cappi, who are reworking the Korean story for an Italian setting while preserving the strong emotional and social core of the original format.

Shooting started on 17 June in Orvieto, the Umbrian city that will serve as one of the key locations for the series. Local press, including La Nazione, reported that the town will host the production for several weeks, turning its historic streets and urban spaces into a natural set for the new Mediaset fiction. The choice of Orvieto gives the adaptation a distinctive Italian identity, combining the intimate dimension of a family drama with the visual and symbolic strength of one of central Italy’s most recognisable locations.

The original Beautiful World aired on JTBC in 2019. Directed by Park Chan-hong and written by Kim Ji-woo, the Korean drama starred Park Hee-soon, Choo Ja-hyun and Nam Da-reum. The series was built around a powerful premise: a boy stands at the crossroads between life and death, while his family struggles to uncover the truth behind the accident that changed their lives. Through this investigation, the drama explored themes such as school violence, family bonds, guilt, social pressure and the painful search for justice.

With Un Mondo Bellissimo, RTI and 7Verticale are bringing to the Italian market a Korean scripted format with strong universal appeal. The project also confirms the growing international circulation of Korean IP beyond the streaming ecosystem, showing how Korean drama formats can be adapted for European free-to-air audiences through local storytelling, recognisable talent and culturally specific settings.