On April 29, 1992, Italian crime scene investigators unearthed a 22-caliber bullet with the letter “H” stamped on its base buried in the vegetable garden of the Tuscan home of Pietro Pacciani, a farm laborer, who subsequently become dubbed “The Monster of Florence.” Cut to present day. On a balmy mid-September afternoon, roughly 34 years later, Italian genre director Stefano Sollima — who is reconstructing the still-unsolved case for the screen in his eponymous Netflix thriller — is busy on a bustling hillside set on the outskirts of Rome. Sollima is setting up key scenes of the new three-episode installment of “The Monster of Florence” anthology series.
These are the crucial moments that led to the unearthing of a key piece of evidence, resulting in Pacciani being convicted of eight double murders involving couples parked in cars around Florence that gripped Italy with terror between the late 1960s to the mid-’80s. Pacciani was subsequently acquitted after this evidence was overturned by modern scientific technology. But on the monitor, as the scene plays out, Pacciani — played by an actor whose name has yet to be divulged by Netflix — looks pretty spooked as he watches forensic experts drill into the ground.
Sollima, in his customary all-black outfit consisting of jeans and a T-shirt, points out that Pacciani’s real rustic home in Mercatale Val di Pesa — a hamlet south of Florence in the Chianti hills — has been meticulously reconstructed brick by brick. The Pacciani trial scenes, however, were shot in the actual maximum security courtroom in Florence where his historic 1994 trial took place. Police began to suspect that the crimes had been committed by a group led by Pacciani known as the “Snack Buddies,” but he died before the second trial could begin.
Two of his alleged accomplices were convicted of participating in some the murders. The second chapter of “The Monster of Florence,” which in October 2025 became Netflix’s most-watched series globally in its first week in release, focuses on the “Snack Buddies” lead. And, in particular, on the figure of Pacciani, who was at the center of a marathon 1994 trial filled with unexpected twists and turns.
Pacciani was given a life sentence for killing six of the eight couples and also found guilty of raping his two daughters. That ruling was subsequently overturned and Pacciani died in 1998 from a heart attack, at the age of 73, before he could be retried. The limited anthology series has reunited Sollima with writer Leonardo Fasoli and ace Italian cinematographer Paolo Carnera, both of whom Sollima worked with on “Gomorrah” and cocaine trafficking drama “ZeroZeroZero.” Sollima has also helmed Hollywood movies such as “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and “Without Remorse.” “The Monster of Florence” saga is being produced by Wildside, a Fremantle company, and Sollima’s AlterEgo production shingle.
The producers are Sonia Rovai, Gina Gardini, Sollima and Lorenzo Mieli. Below, Sollima speaks to Variety on set about “The Monster of Florence’s” new episodes. The whole story unfolds within a massive narrative arc that spans the roughly 20 years of the hunt for the Monster.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
