{"id":33482,"date":"2026-02-12T01:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33482"},"modified":"2026-02-12T01:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T06:46:11","slug":"solo-mio-exclusive-interview-with-co-director-charles-kinnane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33482","title":{"rendered":"Solo Mio : Exclusive Interview with Co-Director Charles Kinnane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of Angel Studios<\/p>\n

Solo Mio<\/strong> : A wedding disaster leaves the groom stranded in Rome, heartbroken in the world\u2019s happiest city. But with one determined local\u2014and a few meddling vacation couples\u2014in his corner, his ruined honeymoon becomes an adventure he never expected. Because sometimes heartbreak is just the first chapter of a better story.<\/p>\n

Director<\/strong> : Charles Kinnane, Daniel Kinnane<\/p>\n

Producer :<\/strong> Kevin James, Mark Fasano, Jeffrey Greenstein<\/p>\n

Screenwriter<\/strong> : Patrick Kinnane, John Kinnane, Kevin James<\/p>\n

Distributor<\/strong> : Angel Studios<\/p>\n

Production Co<\/strong> : A Higher Standard<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong> : PG<\/p>\n

Genre<\/strong> : Romance, Comedy<\/p>\n

Original Language<\/strong> : English<\/p>\n

Release Date (Theaters)<\/strong> : Feb 6, 2026, Wide<\/p>\n

Runtime<\/strong> : 1h 40m<\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

\"Solo<\/p>\n

\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of Angel Studios<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exclusive Interview with Co-Director Charles Kinnane<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Q :<\/span> We really miss that type of a romantic comedy from 80s and 90s. I was really fascinated by that. And, this script was written by Kevin James, and your brother, John and Patrick Kinnane, what was the initiation process of making such a wonderful collaboration with the eight brothers for this film?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> Kevin was asked by producers, Mark & Jeffrey Greenstein, Mark Fasano. They asked Kevin, they said, \u201cHey, if you could shoot anywhere in the world, where would you want to go and shoot your next movie\u201d? And Kevin said, \u201cI’ve always wanted to shoot in Rome, Italy.\u201d My brothers and I, pitched an idea. Kevin plays a guy who went to Italy to get married. And gets left at the altar. And it was my brother John, who said, \u201cIt\u2019d be amazing if the movie is him on his honeymoon alone.” So that was really the inspiration that Kevin wanted to film in Italy.<\/p>\n

In Rome specifically, and then our brother John, having this idea about following a character through Rome on his honeymoon alone. The producers said, \u201cHey, would you guys write the movie\u201d? And Kevin, John and Pat started writing that night.<\/p>\n

And it was incredible. They sold the film to Cannes, William (Kinnane), an executive producer was instrumental in some great ideas, the twists and turns at the end. It was a great process with all the brothers and Kevin. Kevin’s been so wonderful to us to let us collaborate as a family with him. And it was really the for us, I’ll say it was a dream project for us.<\/p>\n

Q :<\/span> Yeah, it’s dream to be shooting in Rome, almost like having a vacation and honeymoon at the same time.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane: I know.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q :<\/span> Did you have any Italian crew or strictly American crew to shoot?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> The entire crew was Italian. Our production designer was Italian Chiara Balducci. Alessandro (Lai), who was our costume designer from Italy, all the production heads were from Italy. Jared Fadel, the incredible cinematographer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He was somebody that we loved and had worked with on a previous project, and we brought him in, but he worked with an Italian crew. He’s based in the US. Other than Jared and my brothers and I, it was an Italian crew, and they were amazing. And welcomed us like family.That’s how we felt, every day was like that. Every day we got up and Christian who was in transportation would take us around. He was our introduction into this amazing family, the, Italian crews that have been working together for years and they have generations that have made movies and all these classic Italian movies. Their grandparents or their great-grandparents that had been a part of, and so it was very special to work with the Italian crew.<\/p>\n

\"Solo<\/p>\n

\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of Angel Studios<\/p>\n

Q :<\/span> We really feel the atmosphere of Italy there. It really stood out. I was blown away by the Nicole Grimaudo\u2019s performance, which was really breaking-out performance there. She has a chemistry with Kevin James. So, could you talk about how did you find Nicole Grimaudo to cast as Gia, because I saw that was brilliant choice for that.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> Yeah, Nicole Grimaudo, I can’t say enough about Nicole. Marta, who was one of the early casting associates that was brought on in the very beginning of the movie, she had sent us a list and there was some amazing Italian actors on that list.<\/p>\n

And in that list there was Nicole Grimaudo and she was not as well known. She had been a singer in Italy. There was something very interesting about her, and we said, we asked Marta, we said, could we get her on a call with Kevin, just a Zoom call? And ’cause there were some other actors were much more well known or had been in movies that crossed over into the United States. But, Nicole got on a call with Kevin and we saw the chemistry was instantaneous.<\/p>\n

On the Zoom with them and Nicole and Kevin, and Nicole doesn’t speak English. It’s not her first language, but she speaks very little English, just their communication was beautiful and so wonderful and they were able to communicate without language, they were just able to play off each other. We knew right away from that call, we were like, that’s it, done. And so we felt that and what was amazing is when shooting the movie, we set up two cameras. We did a lot of cross coverage so that we and we told them, don’t worry about getting the lines perfect.<\/p>\n

Just react to each other. What you saw in the movie is how they were, Nicole is that person on and off screen, and her charisma, just burst out we were very lucky. She joined the movie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q :<\/span> Yeah, obviously, you had a bit of language barrier. But since you guys set up those two camera, it really captured actually memorable moments throughout the film, and that was really successful idea to shoot. That was also my next question to ask about how it was so spontaneous and you felt improvisation in a certain sense, their chemistry was there. I’m also curious to know about noisy tourist Julian and Neil play by Kim Coates and Jonathan Roumie, they are being a bit of noisy Parker get into the somebody’s business, but at the same times, you need those characters to cheer yourself up. So, could you talk about creating those dynamic characters between Julian and Neil.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> So what was interesting is Kevin from day one said, I want Kim Coates in this movie, and Jonathan Rumi. When the boys were writing it, we had their voices in mind and thought it was so funny.<\/p>\n

This character who doesn’t know Kevin at all, makes us laugh. And we love those characters who push past social cues, they’re like, “Hey I see someone’s hurting and I’m gonna get in there and see if they’re okay.\u201d We said, \u201cWouldn’t it be lucky if people had a friend like Julian or Neil, Meghan(played by Alyson Hannigan) and Donna(played by Julee Cerda)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These characters help you along your journey. Everybody needs friends who when you’re going through a tough time, pick you up and say, \u201cHey. It’s gonna get better.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q : <\/span>You don’t need to get bothered by those type of people every day, but you need those type of actually person when can cheer you up.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> We all need that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Solo<\/p>\n

\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of Angel Studios<\/p>\n

Q :<\/span> I’m curious to know, there’s a presence of a wonderful Andrea Bocelli as an uncle of Gia, that was really a surprise element, He even rides a horse in the film. So talk about his appearance and how that elevate this film.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> Andrea Bocelli, so Kevin and John and Pat, they wrote him in the script early on and we were thinking, what are the chances we’d ever get him to be in a movie? He’s this world famous vocalist. And who knows, he could be on tour where, we’re shooting this movie at a very specific time. And I would have to say we got connected with our executive producer, Frankie Nasso who had a connection to the Bocelli\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

We were there in Italy and we got invited to this fundraiser that Bocelli has. And Kevin went to that fundraiser and was a huge part of it. And Bocelli eventually agreed but we only had him for one day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Q :<\/span> Yeah. But not only, he actually has a presence, but he even sing with Kevin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Charles Kinnane:<\/span> Incredible. My parents, grew up in a small farm town in Rhode Island, far from the cities. But someone had give my parents tickets years ago to see Bocelli and they went and they took the big trip into the city to go see him, and they sat way in the back. And unfortunately they waited for him to come out, but he was sick that night. Right before Christmas, the show. They said they’d refund everybody. Maybe it would be done at a later date. And so my parents went home thinking I don’t know if we’ll see him again.<\/p>\n

Flash forward a year and a half later. We’re filming in Bocelli’s childhood home on the Family Vineyard in Tuscany. The lights are set up, the camera’s ready and there’s my mom and dad sitting on the couch 10 feet from Bocelli listening to him play a private concert for the crew that was the best thing that has come out of us making movies is mom and dad got a private concert with Andrea Bocelli. We\u2019re so grateful that he’s in the movie and his wife, Veronica and daughter Virginia, are in the movie as well.<\/p>\n

Q :<\/span> You guys should add onto this parent\u2019s story like a special bonus feature on DVD.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane: Yes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Q :<\/span> This film shows the talent of Kevin James, not just his comedy side. But also dramatic side. So talk about his quality that’s surprised you in this film because it was really brilliant to cast him in this film.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Charles Kinnane:<\/span> Yeah. So we’ve gotten to work with Kevin for a long time, and so we knew His incredible command of being an actor in something different than what he is known for. He’s obviously known for a lot of the slapstick funny comedy movies like \u201cPaul Blart\u201d or a lot of the “Grown Ups\u201d movies where he is falling down or hitting his head on things. And it’s very funny, but we got to know Kevin making short films and we were just blown away by him. And we were like, this guy, he’s an incredible actor. And so I think something we talked about with this movie especially was.<\/p>\n

Let Kevin be more grounded. Let the other characters be the crazy ones surrounding him. this character Matt Taylor, let’s let him be the more grounded character. And Kevin really embraced that and we feel he did an incredible job. it’s amazing this film’s gonna get out there in the world and people are gonna see how an amazing actor Kevin James is.<\/p>\n

\"Solo<\/p>\n

\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of Angel Studios<\/p>\n

If you like the interview, share your thoughts below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out more of Nobuhiro’s articles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer of the film.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n