Morgan Freeman will narrate a new feature-length doc-drama about Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa” portrait, entitled The Mona Lisa Myth. The actor, who won an Academy Award for Million Dollar Baby (2005), has previously narrated a number of successful films, including March of the Penguins (2005), War of the Worlds (2005) and Born to be Wild (2011).
The Mona Lisa Myth, shot on location in Florence, shows how Leonardo, penniless and destitute after the fall of Milan, was compelled to paint the “Mona Lisa” in exchange for winning a fresco contract from the city of Florence. The film also reveals that he actually painted two Mona Lisa portraits, one of which emerged from a Swiss vault in 2012.
“The Mona Lisa Myth” is written and directed by Jean-Pierre Isbouts, a bestselling National Geographic author who previously directed Walt: The Man Behind the Myth narrated by Dick van Dyke (Disney, 2001), and Operation Valkyrie (Koch/Anchor Bay, 2008). The film is based on the book “The Mona Lisa Myth,” which Isbouts co-wrote with North Carolina art connoisseur Dr. Christopher Brown in 2013. The cast includes the Italian actor Alessandro Demcenko in the role of Leonardo, while American actor Peter Xifo portrays Leonardo in his final years in Amboise. Top curators from the Louvre, the London National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Munich Pinakothek and the Vatican Museums are likewise featured.
The film is based on the book “The Mona Lisa Myth,” which Isbouts co-wrote with North Carolina art connoisseur Dr. Christopher Brown in 2013. Brown also serves as Executive Producer of the film.
The picture is the first of a trilogy of films on Leonardo’s work and life, using lavish re-enactments and graphics effects to appeal to a broad international audience. The second picture, “Secrets of the Last Supper,” is now under development.
“The Mona Lisa Myth” is produced by Pantheon Studios and Brown Discoveries, LLC, and represented by Peter Miller of Global Lion Intellectual Property Management, Inc..