Alice Rohrwacher to Direct Feature Film Adaptation of Italo Calvino Classic ‘The Baron in the Trees’

May 29, 2026 2:48am PT

Alice Rohrwacher to Direct Feature Film Adaptation of Italo Calvino Classic ‘The Baron in the Trees’

Italian auteur Alice Rohrwacher, known for her magical realist works “The Wonders,” “Happy as Lazzaro” and “La Chimera” —  all of which competed at Cannes Film Festival — is set to direct a feature film adaptation of Italo Calvino’s coming-of-age fable “The Baron in the Trees.”

One of the most celebrated books in 20th century Italian literature, “The Baron in the Trees” was published in 1957 and revolves around a 12-year-old baron named Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, who after a dispute with his father, climbs up a tree and remains there for the rest of his life. It is the late Calvino’s bestselling work of fiction alongside his 1979 novel “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.”