Al Pacino on how he got his Modigliani film off the ground after 30 yearson

He is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, having made his name in the 1970s gangster classic The Godfather. Yet, despite his fame and Oscars recognition, Al Pacino struggled for 30 years to make a movie about one of the 20th century’s greatest artists because “art films” are “always difficult to get off the ground”.

He refused to give up on a drama about Amedeo Modigliani, a tortured genius who faced repeated rejection before his life was cut short in 1920 by tubercular meningitis, aged 35.

The film, Modigliani – Three Days on the Wing of Madness, is directed by Johnny Depp, and will be released in cinemas in July.

The Italian painter-sculptor had struggled to sell his work while battling poverty and an addiction to drink and drugs. Today, demand for his elongated portraits and sensual nudes is such that one of his paintings – Reclining Nude, from 1917-18 – sold for a record $170m (£113m) in New York in 2015.

Pacino said of Modigliani: “There is something in this story that is not just identifiable with [the] artist. There is that connection to rejection in all of us, so it gives audiences something they can relate to.”

Set in war-torn Paris in 1916, it is a fantasy that chronicles 72 hours in the chaotic, bohemian life of Modigliani as he tries desperately to escape the squalor of Montmartre and find recognition as an artist by meeting a famous American collector, played by Pacino, who said: “Unfortunately, it doesn’t turn out to be as he expected.”

Depp cast the Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio as Modigliani, saying: “When I saw Riccardo, his eyes reminded me of Oliver Reed. I love Oliver Reed. He was dangerous and he was funny and he was cool … In Riccardo, I see something of Ol