'My Spy The Eternal City' a love letter to Italy: Director Pete Segal

New Delhi: A real-life personal story served as the starting point for his latest release "My Spy The Eternal City", says filmmaker Pete Segal, who describes the film as his "love letter" to Italy.

The movie, a sequel to Segal's 2020 action comedy "My Spy", brings back Dave Bautista and Chloe Coleman as veteran CIA operative JJ and his high school-going stepdaughter and protege, Sophie.

"My Spy The Eternal City", which started streaming on Prime Video from Thursday, sees the action shift from Chicago to Italy when Sophie's high school choir goes on a tour to the European country. The trip is interrupted by a nefarious nuclear plot targeting the Vatican which compels the duo to reunite to save the world again.

"The choir trip (in the film) is based on a real choir trip that I was actually a chaperone on for my children's high school. They have a tremendous choir, led by the real Dr Brookie, who we portrayed with another actor in the film, and the tour started in Venice.

"Then, they took the kids to Florence on the train and then they all performed before the Pope in the Vatican and I just wanted to capture that same adventure on film... So, it's a bit of a love letter to Italy, and I'm excited for people to see the characters they love but in this new, bigger environment," Segal told PTI in an interview when asked why he chose to move the plot in the follow-up film to Italy.

The sequel is bigger and grander than "My Spy", which was made on a USD 19 million budget, he said, adding Amazon Studios gave the team "triple" the amount to mount the new movie.

"We were the beneficiaries of our success on the first movie. It was the third biggest movie of 2020. And so our budget originally was USD 19 million. And, Amazon rewarded us with triple that to do the sequel. So, we knew we had a lot more money to make a bigger canvas.

"We wanted the set pieces to be bigger. We wanted the action to be bigger. We wanted new characters. You have to challenge yourself not to repeat. Just because a joke worked in the first movie, don't do it again. Try to be as fresh and original as you can," he added.

The director, best known for comedies such as "50 First Dates", "The Longest Yard", "Anger Management", and "Get Smart", said "My Spy The Eternal City" is one of the few films to be shot inside the Colosseum, the historical landmark in Italian capital Rome, in a while.

And that's what made filming the climax of the movie one of his favourite sequences.

"... The fact that we were able to shoot for real in Rome. Obviously stuff inside the Vatican had to be faked. That was visual effects because no one is allowed to film inside the Vatican, but there is access even to the Colosseum. It apparently is very rare. Only four films have been granted access to film inside the Colosseum in the last 25 years," Segal said.

Growing up, characters like Inspector Jacques Clouseau from "The Pink Panther" movies and James Bond starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore were his favourite spies.

"I liked Inspector Clouseau. He was a lot of fun. But I've always loved James Bond. Going back to Sean Connery and Roger Moore. 'Moonraker' (is) one of my favourite movies when I was a kid.

"And also 'Moonraker' was shot quite a bit in Venice, Italy. So I thought about that when I was there. I thought about where Roger Moore came up into St Mark's Square on the gondola that became a car. Those things went through my head because they're iconic." The director already has "a couple of thoughts" for a third part in the action comedy franchise, but all will depend on the response to "My Spy The Eternal City".

"We'll see how this one does. And if we have the same kind of success that we did on the first one, then I'll really think about it," he said.

His film "50 First Dates", a popular rom-com film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, completed 20 years in February.

The 2004 movie followed Henry Roth (Sandler), a womanising marine veterinarian who falls for an art teacher named Lucy Whitmore (Barrymore), who resolves to win her over again every day when he discovers she has amnesia.

"I think everyone should have the patience of Henry Roth to woo the woman that you love over and over again, every day from scratch. Let's just say that's not me, but very inspirational to me and hopefully to everyone," he said.

"My Spy The Eternal City" also stars Ken Jeong and Kristen Schaal, who reprise their roles from the original. They are joined by Anna Faris, Craig Robinson and Flula Borg.