Suspected killer pitched film to Malta-based producers
The film was meant to be released this year but appears to have never been finished
The American man suspected of killing his wife and baby contacted Malta-based film producers earlier this year to collaborate on a film which they were told he was directing.
Francis Kaufmann, who went by the pseudonym Rexal Ford, told filmmakers in Malta that he was scouting locations on the island for his upcoming feature film Food Fight.
Sources close to the film industry said it appears the collaboration did not go beyond a few e-mails and introductory meetings, and the film never materialised.
The 46-year-old American man was arrested in Greece last week in connection with a grim discovery – the bodies of a young woman and her infant baby, which were found in Rome’s Villa Pamphili earlier this month.
The woman and the baby are yet to be identified but Times of Malta confirmed on Monday that Kaufmann resided at a Marsascala address with a valid residence permit for a few months between 2023 and 2024.
This week, police investigators descended on the relatively quiet street where he lived to gather any information that could help build a more comprehensive profile of Kaufmann and his family during their time in Malta.
Times of Malta could not confirm international media reports that Kaufmann and his wife got married in Malta. Sources said the Maltese authorities have no record of any of the man’s names in marriage registers.
But the man’s connection to Malta, however brief, is undeniable. His apparent plans to produce the film in Malta are one example.
‘Ford’ told producers he intended to produce the film in Malta and asked for a preliminary meeting.
No trace of the film online
There is almost no trace of the film online but it does have a publicly accessible IMDb page, explaining that the plot is about “two ruthless rivals [who come] head-to-head in this intense battle of culinary supremacy of the Mediterranean. Malta is the epicentre for this exciting clash of who is number one. The landscape for creators is large; this story will delve into the depths of the cultural nuances of the Maltese culinary world”.
The page lists ‘Rexal Ford’ as the writer, producer and director of the film, titled Food Fight and indicates that it was meant to be released last February.
‘Ford’ also has an IMDb page, with a biography describing him as man who “is still sorting the basics of life, from a film perspective he’s always delving into the creative process to a point where the magic has been manifested”.
The somewhat mysterious case has gripped Italy over the past days, with investigators now piecing together a complex narrative involving mysterious identities and an international search for answers.
As the investigation into the discovery of the bodies in Rome continues, the authorities are working to reconstruct the couple’s last movements in Italy, comb through financial transactions and definitively identify the woman and child.