EXCLUSIVE: Pródigo Filmes, the Brazilian production company behind Paramount+’s Anderson Silva drama series Spider, is developing a film based on Stênio Gardel’s award-winning novel The Words That Remain.
Pródigo, which produced Netflix’s 2021 drama series Invisible City, is working with the Brazilian arm of international content and advertising production group Iconoclast to co-produce the film, which is ready to go into production.
Armando Praça has developed a script based on the novel, with Fernando Nogari attached to direct. Emerging filmmaker Nogri is known for his music video work with the likes of Selina Gomez and Tove Lo. Pródigo co-CEOs Francesco Civita and Beto Gauss are producing.
The book follows a gay man’s journey to self acceptance in the hinterlands of northeastern Brazil. In November, author Gardel and translator Brua Dantas Lobato were honored with Brazil’s National Book Award for the novel.
The film will be centered on Raimundo, an illiterate man whose teenage love with another male was brutally discovered 30 years prior. Now aged 45 and leading a quiet life in the city, he is haunted by his secret past until he forms an unexpected friendship with a Black transvestite, Suzzanny, and learns to read.
Story is billed as “a sweeping story of repression, violence, and shame, along with their flipside: love, survival and endurance of unforgettable figures on society’s margins.”
Gauss told Deadline that Pródigo acquired the rights to Gardel’s debut novel before it has been published in English, and was planning a local-language adaptation. “This is a movie we need to do in Portuguese,” added Civita. “It could really be very powerful when it’s seen elsewhere.”
Citiva said the script could appeal to the U.S. and international markets,” adding: “It could be an A24 film.”
Pródigo set the debuting Nogari as director after working with him on commercials and other short-form content. The company also runs a joint venture advertising production business with France’s Iconoclast, from which the pair teamed up to develop The Words That Remain into a feature.
Gauss said Pródigo could work to several business models, and was assessing options for The Words That Remain after investing the initial money itself. “Some streamers are interested in negative pick-ups where they put in good value for distribution rights and some production money,” added Civita. “We can boost that with Brazilian soft money and an international player.”
Pródigo, which is signed for representation by CAA, has been making international trade headlines in recent months thanks to its Anderson Silva limited series, which follows the life of the all-time great UFC fighter. Spider rolled out across Latin America on November 16 and in other territories such as the UK, though it hasn’t launched in the U.S. yet.
Civita said the biopic was Paramount+’s “biggest statement in Latin America” to date. “Anderson is not only a Brazilian hero, a Black man from simple origins, but there is a sense we are telling a Brazilian story of success and of a man who is loved, adored and recognized all over the world,” he added.
Other titles in the works include a script in development with Jon Silk’s LA-based Silk Mass and Javier Chapa’s Mucho Mas Media.
The producer is also behind recently released Prime Video original series Love is for the Brave, Netflix’s Girls From Ipanema and Carlos Saldanha fantasy series Invisible City and HBO original SOB.
“We are a Brazilian company,” said Civita. “That’s our DNA and core self but we believe the world is more of a global place than ever and that our stories can be seen in other countries and told in English.” He added that around 20% of its business “should be coming from aboard,” and that it had deals in the works in Europe and Latin America.
Like many others, the Brazilian entertainment market is undergoing significant change. After years of the advertising market keeping many producers alive, the entrance of Netflix into the market brought about significant new investment.
With the likes of Paramount+ now in the original series game, production companies have new avenues for business but talk around streaming levies is growing louder and the recent streaming economics reset poses questions about local investment all over the world.
“We have felt the impact of this year’s crisis — and there will be less produced and spent — but we feel that the streamers need to produce here,” said Gauss.
He added that the changed global entertainment economics led to opportunity for companies with co-production capabilities. “The pendulum was on one side and now it’s going to the other side,” he said. “That’s going to allow us to make co-pros. “It’s a hard time right now compared to 2021 and 2022 when we had the Covid bubble, but new models are coming and we believe international is very important for streamers.”
Civita said Pródigo’s staff of around 80 allowed the company to take a production from development and writers rooms all the way through to physical and post-production in-house. “Our structure has to be like that,” added Gauss.
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Source: DLine
