corriereNERD
August 30, 2026
Aprilia once again has the color of dust, the sound of boots on wood and that dirty light that Italian cinema transformed, many decades ago, into a language that is recognizable everywhere. Filming for Django Undisputed 2: Justice Is Done is underway in the Pontine territory, with Claudio Del Falco still engaged in the dual role of director and protagonist. Rather than announcing the "return" of the spaghetti western, a formula abused every time a wide-brimmed hat appears on an Italian set, it is worth talking about a new incursion into a genre that has never really ceased to haunt the pop imagination. From Sergio Corbucci onwards, Django has become almost a mask of the commedia dell'arte transferred to the mud of the frontier: a name passed from film to film, often without narrative continuity, capable of immediately evoking revenge, anarchy and justice administered far from the courts. Del Falco picks up this legacy with the physical attitude gained between action cinema and martial arts, after Iron Fighter, The Martial Avenger and Camille Delamarre's participation as an antagonist in Assassin Club. The first Django Undisputed, which arrived in 2025 with a duration of 84 minutes, saw him alongside Tomas Arana, Michael Segal and Fabio Romagnolo in an action western also indebted to the light-hearted irony made immortal by the Trinity films, a contamination that is anything but sacrilegious for a strand that grew up precisely by recycling archetypes, faces and suggestions. The film is still available in the international digital market, including through Apple TV.
The second chapter ups the ante by relying on an essential, almost archetypal story: Django must free a city subjugated by an unscrupulous boss and avenge his father, supported by his outlaw brother and the women of the town. A premise that might seem simple, but the western has always found its strength in clear structures, in conflicts that can already be read through a door that opens or a hand resting too close to the holster. What changes is what is built around it: the quality of the presences, the relationship between action and landscape, the ability to make the weight of a sunny road perceived even before the first shot is fired. The official profile of Filmitalia–Cinecittà records the project as an Italian production currently in production, dated 2027, directed by Del Falco and scripted by the director himself together with Sandro Arista. The production is being handled by Human Film International, supported by BRS Media and Terik Film Productions; after the passage of the Madison Cinema circuit in theaters, the announced plan provides for the digital distribution of United Digital Studios in over fifty countries and dubbing in ten languages. An interesting strategy especially for an independent work: the western genre has immediate international readability and, in the streaming ecosystem, can cross territories in which contemporary Italian cinema often struggles to reach.
The face destined to first attract the attention of the general public is that of Daniel McVicar, an American actor linked for many years to Beautiful, here very far from the sentimental geometries of Los Angeles in the role of El Chapo. The idea has an almost irresistible irony: one of the most familiar characters on afternoon television enters an Italian border where conflicts are not resolved over a glass in the office of Forrester Creations. His participation is confirmed both by the Filmitalia profile and by the information released by Sky TG24, together with the return of Fabio Romagnolo, an IFBB Pro athlete whose physicality had already left an evident imprint in the first film. The cast is completed by Martina Marotta, Annarita Del Piano, Clara Guggiari, Ciro Buono, Stefano Tricarico, Vanni De Simoni and Reyson Grumelli. Particularly curious is the entry of Vincenzo Galluzzo, interpreter of Jesus in Giulio Base's The Gospel of Judas, presented at the Locarno Film Festival and distributed in Italian cinemas in 2026: a leap from the spiritual rarefaction of a biblical tale to the rough material of the western, also confirmed by the National Film Evaluation Commission, which documents the role played by the actor in Base's work.
The main settings have been identified in Meatfield Town, a permanent western village in Aprilia designed by set designer Tiziano Carnevale, together with other locations in the area. A production choice that matters much more than it may seem, because a western lives in the tactile credibility of spaces: worn axes, facades, fences, dust and perspective depths do not function as a simple backdrop, but determine movements, shots and choreography. Carnevale also signs the set design and coordinates the stunts, while Matteo De Angelis returns to the direction of photography, consolidating a partnership now in its fourth consecutive film with Del Falco. The original music is entrusted to Tony Riggi, the costumes to Francesco Bureca and the production supervision to Giuseppe M. Andreani of Dreamline Pictures. After the conclusion of the set, the work will continue in the BackLight Digital studios for post-production, a step in which the classic image of the frontier and the more muscular rhythm of contemporary action will have to find the right balance.
The real challenge, after all, is not to rebuild a saloon
or make a spur resonate over a wooden walkway. It means understanding why we
continue to need Django, a dirty and imperfect knight who arrives where the law
has stopped working. Django Undisputed 2: Justice Is Done was born within an
independent Italian production, with international ambitions and a team that
seems to want to work on concreteness even before nostalgia. We will only know
in front of the screen if the shot will reach the target; meanwhile, seeing the
border reopen in Aprilia retains that slightly crazy charm that belongs to
obstinately built cinematographic enterprises. And the western community, on
this, will certainly have a lot to discuss.
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