Academy Award-winning set designer Dante Ferretti thanked former President Giorgio Napolitano for his assistance in negotiating an accord to complete Ferretti's project for the main streets at Milan's Expo 2015.
Ferretti said the project "will be fully complete by June 2, Republic Day," which in Italy is a national holiday to commemorate the establishment of the Italian Republic following the Second World War.
The tender for the project was awarded to Rome's Cinecittà film studio, Ferretti said.
"I know them really well, I've already worked with them.
Now we have to roll up our sleeves. On May 8 I'll be back in Italy, in time to directly supervise the work," Ferretti said from Taiwan, where he's working on the film Silence, his ninth with American director Martin Scorsese. On Tuesday Ferretti had threatened to take legal action to prevent a partial realisation of his design and protect the project, which he said was "still at a standstill" less than a month before the official opening of the Universal Exposition on May 1.
Ferretti's project involves the design of the 350-metre Cardo and 1.5-km Decumano - the two intersecting axes crossing the exhibition area respectively from north to south and from east to west.
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