Scripted

Acclaimed Italian producer Indigo Film, in collaboration with leading independent distributor All3Media International, today announced the lead broadcast partners for The Gymnasts, a new six-part thriller based on Ilaria Bernardini’s bestselling novel Corpo Libero.

The Paramount+ Original series will be exclusively premiered on Paramount+ in Italy and across France, UK, Canada, Australia, Latin America and South Korea later in 2022 as a Paramount+ Original.

In Italy, Rai Fiction is a lead partner of this prestigious series produced with ZDFneo within the European Alliance. In Germany the series is presented as a neoriginal and launched on ZDFneo in 2023.

The series is co-produced with Network Movie. All3Media International also takes an associate credit.

The series will be directed by Cosima Spender, director of award-winning documentaries such as Palio and SanPa: Sins of the Savior, and Valerio Bonelli, a prestigious editor whose credits includes SanPa: Sins of the Savior, Philomena, Darkest Hour, The Martian, and Black Mirror. The writing team includes Chiara Barzini (Arianna), Ilaria Bernardini, the author of the novel, Ludovica Rampoldi (Exterior Night, The Traitor, Gomorrah) and Giordana Mari (1993).

“We were attracted by the closed world of competitive gymnastics so evocatively described in this series. It was both an entertaining and stirring story. Each character described manifests a reaction to the pressures of the sport, which often pushes the dynamics between them to a toxic realm. The theme of the adolescent changing body through the lens of a thriller fascinated us.” Cosima Spender and Valerio Bonelli.

In the UK, a translated version of the Italian bestseller novel is set to be published on the 4th August 2022, with the title The Girls are Good, following HarperCollins’ acquisition of world rights excluding Italy. The US and Canada will publish in 2023.
In Italy a brand new edition of the novel will be released by Mondadori on the same week of the series premiere, with its original title, Corpo libero.

In England, US and Canada a translated version of the Italian bestseller is set to be published internationally on the 4th August 2022, with the title The Girls are Good, following HarperCollins’ acquisition of world rights excluding Italy. In Italy a brand new edition of the novel will be released by Mondadori on the same week of the series premiere, with its original title, Corpo libero.

A powerful coming-of-age thriller, The Gymnasts centres on a team of elite teenage athletes as they compete at an international tournament high up in the snowy, atmospheric Italian mountains. It is the most important week of their lives, and rivalries are fierce and relationships complex as these loyal teammates fight for a chance at Olympic selection. As tensions and obsessions escalate within the team, and the drama of adolescence clashes with the brutal pressures of competitive training, a ticking time bomb is created. Many of them have spent years dreaming of this event and would do anything to win, so when it is revealed that a competitor has died, the police suspect murder.

Carlotta Calori, Francesca Cima and Nicola Giuliano, by Indigo Film, added, “We are very proud to be in production with Corpo Libero. It's a project that has taken shape thanks to the passion of talented screenwriters able to draw us into the world of gymnastics and teen drama within the framework of a thriller. Our protagonists are in that delicate moment of their lives in which the dividing line between childhood and adolescence is paper-thin, especially for a gymnast who knows well that growing-up means an end to flying and perceives their body as a cage. Cosima and Valerio's direction is helping us explore the border between healthy competition and the desire to win at all costs, portraying sports and teen dynamics without abandoning the adrenaline of the genre. A unique project made possible thanks to the precious support of all our partners who have allowed us to produce it just the way we had imagined it.”