A crime epic on which to organically grow a contemporary love story — call it Romeo & Juliet plus one extra Romeo, or should we say the West Side Story update our “liquid” times needed? In any case, it’s about a big kind of love; so big that it can be shared - as director François Truffaut most notably showed - among three very different people. More or less, this is how Block 181, the first Italian in-house Sky Studios production, was conceived: as a rougunish bet on getting away with an off-kilter crime story and three young leads forming a solid bond — as it were, a “band apart”. Also, most of the action is set in a previously unseen, in-da-hood side of Milano. And yes, we go back to the less than discreet charm of evil, asking ourselves the questions for which Jorge Luis Borges had the best words: “why do we prefer Hell to Paradise? Don’t we believe in happy endings?”. Which is a good enough reason for us to stick to crime moviemaking, a long, twisted, legendary lineage which connects A clockwork orange to Pulp Fiction, by way of The godfather and Scarface — as well as a time-honoured tradition to which Sky has been able to contribute stories, characters and titles such as Romanzo Criminale, Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero, which have all found generous praise from an ever-expanding, passionate global viewership. Thus, much as we love tackling a wide range of genres and a few choice authorial experiments on any given season, we’re always sticklers for revisiting that crime tradition — if only to tweak it in new ways, this time around by concocting our extreme, hyper-real take on the city of Milan. Our deepest gratitude goes out to all of those who so enthusiastically, and energetically, took us up on this challenge: our multi-culti, super talented melting pot of a cast, headlined by our young leads Laura Osma, Alessandro Piavani and Andrea Dodero; and the directors’ trio led by Giuseppe Capotondi with Ciro Visco and Matteo Bonifazio; Paolo Vari and all in the writers’room, plus the technical departments, the crew, our production partners and of course the whole Sky team, keeping up all of its passion and commitment to excellence. Extra special kudos must go to Salmo, a bold, ever-inquiring artist, who not only debuted as an actor in this narrative project, but also took control of the music, spearheading some promising ramifications. Welcome, then, to Block 181, our Milan Side Story from AD 2022. Enjoy the ride.