According to Sérgio Sá Leitão, president of the Brazilian based production company RioFilme, Woody Allen will direct a film in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2011 “in the style of ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’.” Leitao only hinted that negotiations are well under way and that he will soon have more news to share. Allen expressed months ago his desire to film in either Argentina or Brazil, countries he found “had a million stories to tell.” If this turns out to be true, the film would shoot after his untitled London set film starring Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Freida Pinto and Anthony Hopkins, right? However, this runs contrary to recent more-legit-sounding reports which peg Allen’s next film to shoot in Paris. Does Leitão mean after Paris? Or is he just trying to build noise for his production company?
Although Brazil and Allen seems like an odd pairing the director has stated that it has become more and more difficult to shoot in his beloved New York more than once so the possibility of him accepting offers that would let him continue making a film a year doesn’t seem that far fetched.
Since Allen has shown a gusto for casting local players for his non -U.S. set pictures, if this does come to pass, we would suggest using Alice Braga (“I Am Legend”) or Rodrigo Santoro (the upcoming “I Love You Phillip Morris”) to be part of the possible cast. Would be kind of great to see Allen himself in an exotic locale such as Brazil, but for now we’ll file under rumor. [G1] – Arturo R. Jiménez
