Film · 2023

Wonderwell

The well that leads to the magic realm, Hazel's fantasy forest, the ogival doors: we sculpted them.

Act one

A fantasy
that waited
seven years.

"The journey we undertook as directors was as complex as that of the feature film itself. From shooting to release it took seven years."

— Vlad Marsavin
Rolling Stone Italia, June 2023.

Wonderwell is the story of Violet, a twelve-year-old on holiday in Italy who discovers, at the bottom of the forest near the village, a well that leads to a parallel realm. There she meets Hazel — played simultaneously by Rita Ora, young and in black leather, and by Carrie Fisher, elderly, among red roses and candelabra. It's a fairytale fantasy in the declared tradition of Labyrinth, Pan's Labyrinth, MirrorMask.

Shot between San Gimignano, Volterra, Cinecittà and Umbria from October 2016 to February 2017. Then seven years of post-production: complex VFX, lockdowns, and — a few days after shooting wrapped — the death of Carrie Fisher, on 27 December 2016. Wonderwell is her last film. It arrives in Italian cinemas on 30 April 2026.

Violet (Kiera Milward) in a burgundy velvet dress walks beside young Hazel (Rita Ora) — black leather jacket, short skirt — across a monumental square of the Etruscan village, grey stone staircase behind. — Violet and Hazel, in the village square

The interior of the refuge built at Cinecittà: an ogival dome of arches in faux stone supported by twisted columns, hanging vegetation, sofa and Oriental cushions on the floor. — Hazel's refuge, built in the studio

The forest set fully dressed: autumn leaves on the ground, sculpted trees, mossy rocks, blue starry cyclorama simulating the night sky. Spotlights aimed from above. — Hazel's forest, under the cyclorama

Act two

Hazel's forest,
sculpted by us.

Between October 2016 and February 2017, Creation Art worked full time on the sets of Wonderwell. For director Vlad Marsavin and art director Daniele Auber — already alongside Terry Gilliam and Luc Besson on creature designs — Hazel's forest could not be a set of wood and plastic. It had to have the weight of stone, the rough bark of ancient trees, the mass of a door sculpted by hand.

It's exactly the craft Ivano Ferrario learned at Cinecittà in 1981, in Carlo Maggi's team: plasterer-sculptor. Sculpting large volumes in expanded polystyrene, coating them in plaster and mortar, painting them with patina to look centuries old. It's this craft that, even before the company took the name Creation Art, built the sets of the most important Italian films — and today raises the trees of Hazel's magic realm.

A monumental tree trunk in white expanded polystyrene, already sculpted at life size, standing in our Creation Art workshop — The tree, sculpted in our sheds

A second giant tree trunk in white polystyrene, with a three-branch fork, mounted in the workshop under the skylights. Beside it a ladder leaning against the trunk: the piece is several metres tall. — Another tree, sculpted at full height

A large ogival portal finished in grey faux stone, about three metres tall, photographed in front of the shed with overcast sky. The vesica piscis shape is characteristic of Gothic architecture. — An ogival portal ready for the set

Behind the scenes

Five months of workshop,
for a forest that lights up.

October 2016. The film starts shooting in Tuscany and immediately moves to Cinecittà for the interiors. The Creation Art team works in parallel: monumental trees in sculpted polystyrene, ogival portals in faux stone tailored to the camera, rocky arches patinated with moss and lichen. The scenography is not a backdrop: it's the true protagonist of the passage between real Italy and Hazel's magic realm.

Overall view of the forest set at Cinecittà: leaves on the ground, sculpted trees, mossy rocks, blue night-time cyclorama with stars. Warm light of the daytime scene falling from above. — The Wonderwell forest, finished and lit, Cinecittà.

Plasterers, not woodsmen

The monumental trees of the magic realm are not pieces of wood: they are volumes in expanded polystyrene sculpted with cuts, then coated in plaster and fibre-reinforced mortar for the bark, finally painted with patina, moss and lichen. It's the original craft of plasterers applied to a fantasy subject: the same technique Creation Art uses for historical bas-reliefs, here sculpted to give credibility to a centuries-old tree.

Ogival portals, faux stone

The film lives on thresholds: the well, the arches of the refuge, the circular portal of elderly Hazel. They are all structures in fibreglass and plaster, modelled to vesica piscis (the Gothic almond shape) or perfect circle, and patinated to simulate ancient stone. The twisted columns of the refuge are sculpted one by one. Dimensions are calibrated on the actor: a three-metre portal lets Rita Ora walk through barefoot, without shrinking in frame.

A forest on the cyclorama

For the Cinecittà interiors, the forest is not painted on a backdrop: it's built at 360°. Dry leaves on the ground, mossy rocks, trees rising up to the lighting grid, in front of a great cyclorama in blue starry hues that changes colour as the hour changes. When the camera turns around Rita Ora in the forest, it can take any shot: everything is real scenography. This is how we achieve a fantasy that doesn't look fake.

5 months in the workshop · October 2016 – February 2017

$40M production budget · Italian-American co-production

7 years in the making · Italian release 30 April 2026

Interior of the refuge under construction: five twisted ogival portals along the wall, sculpted in faux stone, helical columns — **The portals in series.** Five ogival arches with twisted columns, sculpted one by one for the indoor refuge.

Indoor set of a rocky landscape: faux rock walls on either side of a passage, sculpted in angular volumes, lit from above by the studio walkways — **The passage to the realm.** Rocky walls in faux stone, sculpted and painted, reproduced at full height in the studio.

Film shoot in progress: a carousel in the shape of a horned yellow and green spiny-shell creature, with a girl on top. Below, crew and technicians. In the background a blue cyclorama with butterflies. — **On set.** The magic carousel rider — Auber's design, inspired by the Etruscan goddess Cel — in action with the crew around it.

Rocky forest set built in the studio: rocks covered in moss and ferns, fern trees and branches, real vegetation mixed with sculpted vegetation, in front of an intense blue cyclorama — The forest of mossy rocks, set up on the blue cyclorama.

A finished ogival portal in faux stone, three metres tall, standing in front of the Creation Art workshop shed. The stone is raw, not yet aged. — The portal, in our workshop

Carrie Fisher as elderly Hazel — red hair, fuchsia scarf — pours herself a drink next to a large circular ogival portal lit by fire. Red roses and crockery on the table. — The same portal, inhabited by Hazel

Rita Ora as young Hazel — platinum blonde hair, black corset and gloves — standing in the forest among moss-covered rocks and ferns. The stone is the one we sculpted. — The forest with its witch, on screen

In cinema, our work is a translation that turns the screenplay, the director's vision, into images.

Daniele Auber, art director Adnkronos · 30 April 2026

Tech sheet

Five months of workshop

The Creation Art team worked on the sets of Wonderwell from October 2016 to February 2017. The schedule was driven by the shoot: monumental trees for the Italian exteriors, ogival portals for the interior of the refuge at Cinecittà, rocky arches and mossy forest for the passage scenes into the magic realm. The workshop photos tell the whole supply chain: from the block of white expanded polystyrene to the finished portal, ready for the transport truck.

Forty million, seven years

Wonderwell was born as an Italian-American co-production by Strange Quark Films with a budget around 40 million dollars. The figure grew over time due to complex visual effects, the pandemic that halted post-production, and the evident care put into the reconstruction of the magic realm — entirely built in the studio, not in CGI.

Seven years from shoot to release

Shooting wrapped in February 2017. The film opened in the United States on 23 June 2023, distributed by Vertical Entertainment in limited cinemas and digital. In Italy it arrives on 30 April 2026, distributed by Thalia Film and Blue Film, after the premiere at the Cinema Adriano in Rome. "The journey we undertook as directors was as complex as that of the feature film itself", Marsavin told Rolling Stone Italia.

Carrie Fisher's last film

Wonderwell is the last film starring Carrie Fisher, who passed away on 27 December 2016 — just a few weeks after finishing her scenes in Italy. She plays elderly Hazel, the witch of the forest, paired with the young version of herself played by Rita Ora. Director Marsavin recalls that Fisher "celebrated her 60th birthday in Italy with us, she invited the whole crew". It's in the scenography of the refuge built at Cinecittà that the princess Leia of Star Wars recites her last lines.

All production data

Type: Feature film · fantasy / coming-of-age
Director: Vlad Marsavin (debut)
Art director · creature designer: Daniele Auber (previously with Terry Gilliam and Luc Besson)
Director of photography: Kenji Katori
Editing: Emma E. Hickox
Music: William Ross · Angelo Badalamenti
Main cast: Carrie Fisher (elderly Hazel) · Rita Ora (young Hazel) · Kiera Milward (Violet) · Sebastian Croft
Production: Strange Quark Films (Italy · USA co-production)
Italian distribution: Thalia Film · Blue Film
US distribution: Vertical Entertainment (23 June 2023)
Italian release: 30 April 2026 · premiere at Cinema Adriano, Rome
Runtime: 96 minutes
CA work period: October 2016 – February 2017
Location: Tuscany (San Gimignano · Volterra) · Lazio (Cinecittà · Lake Bolsena) · Umbria
Our role: Realisation of the magic realm sets: monumental trees sculpted in expanded polystyrene with bark in fibre-reinforced mortar, ogival and circular portals in fibreglass/plaster patinated to ancient stone, rocky arches and mossy walls for the forest of Hazel, dressing of the blue starry cyclorama at Cinecittà. Five months of work in our laboratories.
Visual reference tradition: Official press notes: Alice in Wonderland · In the Company of Wolves · Labyrinth · Pan's Labyrinth · MirrorMask
Trivia: Carrie Fisher's last film · Princess Leia celebrated her 60th birthday on the Cinecittà set (October 2016)
Second life: Set dismantled after shooting in 2016 · film released in 2023 after long post-production · some sculptures from the fantasy forest kept for reuse on other period fantasy films

Second life

Carrie Fisher's last film,
released seven years later.

Wonderwell has a peculiar cinematic destiny: shot at Cinecittà in autumn 2016, it only opened in cinemas in 2023 after a long post-production. The film is remembered above all because it is Carrie Fisher's last performance — princess Leia of Star Wars, who passed away shortly after filming. On our set at Cinecittà she celebrated her sixtieth birthday in October 2016.

The fantasy forest sets that we built — the trees with fibre-mortar bark, the ogival portals in fibreglass patinated to ancient stone, the mossy rocky arches, the blue starry cyclorama — were dismantled after shooting. Some sculptures came back to our laboratories and spoke with those we built for the European premiere of Maleficent three years later: same grammar of dark fairytale, two different occasions.