Disney+ has commenced production on Italian original series “The Lions of Sicily,” a family saga based on Stefania Auci’s bestseller “The Florios of Sicily.” Principal photography has started in Rome and will take place between there and Sicily. It is directed by Paolo Genovese (“Superheroes”).

Set between 1800 and 1861, the eight-part series follows the Florio family where brothers Paolo and Ignazio are two small spice merchants who have escaped from a Calabria stuck in the past and in search of social redemption. In Sicily they invent a future, turning a small, run-down shop into a flourish business activity that young Vincenzo, with his revolutionary ideas, will transform into an economic empire.