Roberto Benigni is in advanced talks to join Woody Allen's ensemble project Bop Decameron (working title), which is filming in Rome this summer.

The film marks Woody Allen's first major foray into Italian-language filmmaking.

Bop Decameron is set in contemporary Rome, and is loosely inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron," the classic collection of 100 bawdy novellas written in the 1350s, and consists of four separate vignettes.

Two are stories with American characters set in Rome, while the other two involve Italian characters, also set in Rome. The vignettes never intersect.

Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Penélope Cruz and Alec Baldwin are attached to star in Bop Decameron.

Woody Allen, who is directing from his own screenplay, has also confirmed he will play a role, his first onscreen appearance since 2006's Scoop.

Bop Decameron begins production July 11 in Rome.