Not many writers get the kind of big break that Roberto Bentivegna received with House of Gucci. Though he had written and directed a handful of well-received short films, and his script for The Eel has been on the hallowed Hollywood Black List for some time, he was by no means a well-known (or even moderately-known) name, with hardly any online presence.

Nonetheless, the British-born Italian talent suddenly found himself working on the script for a massive $75 million Ridley Scott movie populated by Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto and Al Pacino, along with several other A-list stars. Seemingly out of nowhere, Bentivegna was receiving a BAFTA nomination and becoming partly responsible for a film which made over $150 million, a number which is likely to increase now that House of Gucci, which is as slick as a Gucci belt, is out on Blu-ray.

How Gucci Got Made

House of Gucci
Universal Pictures

This may have come out of some blue nowhere for Bentivegna, but the project had been percolating for famed director Ridley Scott for quite some time. When it eventually came to Bentivegna, he seized the opportunity while retaining a devil-may-care attitude; after all, someone who has never had a feature script made by a director doesn't exactly expect Ridley Scott to be the first.

Ridley and Giannina [Facio, Ridley's spouse] had been trying to get this movie made for I think, 16 years, something like that. Giannina and him had bought the rights to the Sara Gay Forden book, and then they just sort of had like a revolving door of writers that came in and out [...] There was a draft by Charles Randolph, who won an Oscar for The Big Short. There was a draft by Bill Nichols, who wrote Gladiator. So it was a really elite group of people. When I got around to meeting Giannina, I think they were kind of at the end of the road, honestly, because they've been trying for so long.

So it was really just a matter of like throwing it all at the wall and trying to find a new way in, and for me, the main thing about it was to do something that was very darkly humorous. You know, that sort of made fun of these people a little bit, because I never love to see, like, really rich people being taken too seriously, and so there was always going to be a satirical edge to it. And I just had fun with it, you know, because I thought in the back of my mind, maybe Ridley would read it. Maybe Ridley would like it. I didn't think maybe Ridley would make it. So I kind of had nothing to lose, you know, and I think that was really freeing

House of Gucci was adapted from Sara Gay Forden's chronicle of the fashion family, and the murder and tax evasion at the true tabloid heart of their tawdry tale. Bentivegna decided to play around with perspective, shifting away from a kind of objective third-person distance and into a more first-person account from the perspective of Patrizia Reggiani (played by Lady Gaga, who has won numerous accolades for her performance). This allowed House of Gucci to take on a sort of film noir and femme fatale mindset, creating an entry point into the Gucci family via the rise and fall of the possibly murderous Patrizia. It was a clever idea that, combined with Bentivegna's deep knowledge of film, changed the trajectory of the picture.

Related: Ridley Scott Teases Extended Cuts of The Last Duel & House of Gucci

I think sometimes when you're offered a job or when you write a script, you have a eureka moment, and you hold on to that eureka moment for dear life, because you build everything around that. Sometimes those eureka moments are terrible ideas, and you're left with a terrible spread. And other times you have a really good idea and you just, you know, drag it along as much as you can. So I think in this case, I just love Billy Wilder and I love Sunset Boulevard and I love femmes fatales, and I felt like it was an interesting angle to tell the story from essentially the femme fatales' point of view, which is something that you don't really see a lot, with the exception of maybe The Last Seduction, there's not that many movies that that tell it from the other perspective.

[Patrizia] is just such a great character, and whether you love her or hate her, she's definitely unique, and she really leaves a mark. And, you know, originally the script had a voiceover that went through the whole movie, which was very noir, and it was very Billy Wilder, but Ridley never recorded it, so we don't really know what that movie looks like. But it helped me just to kind of get into her head more.

Gucci, Gaga, and Growth

House of Gucci 2
Universal Pictures

Lady Gaga was a perfect fit for Patrizia, what with her love of fashion and Italian ancestry, along with her ability to inhabit complicated women like Ally in A Star is Born. However, with the influx of huge, massively popular actors into the production of House of Gucci, Bentivegna was required to do some rewrites regarding the tastes and voices of different stars. The writer had really only worked on productions he'd directed in the past, so being a part of a massive film that required adaptability and rewrites could've been a difficult process for many. Bentivegna found everything to be organic, however, allowing his script to naturally evolve alongside the production.

I think the biggest rewrites came from Adam Driver, who was really just trying to figure out Maurizio's engine and motivation, and a lot of that is internal [...] we definitely explored the script with him more than the other actors. Gaga didn't have any questions or notes, at least not to me; of course, she worked really hard on the character a lot. And then Jared [Leto, who plays Paulo] had a few things that he brought up here and there.

Related: Ridley Scott Responds To House of Gucci Blacklash From Real-Life Gucci Family

I think the process really opened itself up on set. Once we got on set, there was a lot of improvisation, a lot of freedom to ad-lib, and that was a new version of the film in a way. I'm surprised nobody brings up Jared Leto's ad-lib about sh*t and chocolate as much, as they know the "Father, Son, House of Gucci" [line that Lady Gaga ad-libbed while genuflecting], because that also was ad-libbed, but nobody seems to talk about that one.

Dramas in the Age of Superheroes

House of Gucci 1
Universal Pictures

House of Gucci is an interesting film. While it tended to be divisive for critics, it is also one of the rare movies with an epic scope that isn't merely a franchise picture or a superhero movie. Perhaps it's due to the accessibility and critical acclaim of long-form TV shows and miniseries, but big, dramatic epics (about family, crime, or anything other than superpowers) have certainly gone out of vogue in cinema. Bentivegna notices this and loves the fact that he helped create a more than two and half hour dramatic crime epic, from the point of view of a woman nonetheless.

Telling a story on that kind of scale, and telling it from the point of view of a woman, I just thought it was an amazing opportunity, and so big, you know? You don't see these movies anymore. I mean, usually these are TV shows, or limited series. It's very rare to see a two hour 40 minute epic that takes place over 30 years. So I wanted to get on that train before it left, before it's over. I mean, who knows if we're going to see these movies anymore.

I think it's terrible [that there aren't a lot of big adult dramas any more]. I'm very I'm very opinionated about it. I just think it's very sad. I mean, you can have Marvel movies, of course, they're totally great. I love Batman, it's my favorite comic book. But it is a little bit like fast food. It's like if people aren't given a certain amount of options of what to eat, they'll end up eating that. A., it's not healthy, and B., they'll just be used to fast food. They won't experience new things and new flavors. So yeah, I think you should have both. I think there should be a way of opening the market up to different films, you know.

Bentivegna seems to be trying to carve out a space for this very kind of film, an adult drama that is massive but doesn't depend on franchise culture or superhero movies to succeed. He's decided to take on his acclaimed script for The Eel, directing it himself. Bentivegna went to university to study directing, which was always what he envisioned for himself; he calls being an acclaimed screenwriter "almost an accident."

The Eel is something that I wrote a while back, and it was on The Black List, so it had a really nice sort of splash. And then we had Sam Rockwell attached, we had Ben Kingsley attached, we had all these great actors attached, but the timing was off. So now we're re-casting the movie [...] I love it. I mean, it's one of the best things I've written. If you're familiar with Jim Thompson and noir, and James M. Cain, it kind of has that '50s pop vibe, and I'm very excited. Hopefully, we'll get someone really good.

While it may not get the same stacked cast as his House of Gucci, it seems like Roberto Bentivegna has the momentum to create a cinematic house of his own. House of Gucci is now out on Blu-ray.