Gullane Rolls Out New Movie Slate with Montenegro, Coimbra, Hamburger (EXCLUSIVE)

Gullane, one of Brazil’s biggest production powerhouses, has attached Fernanda Montenegro, Oscar-nominated for “Central Station,” to star in “The Hanged,” the new anticipated film from “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra.  

The news comes as Gullane unveiled in Cannes its first post-pandemic movie slate, led by two movies from director Cao Hamburger.

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“We want to continue providing production services for the platforms, producing with them. But we also want to own the IP of some of our projects, and movies give us that,” Gullane co-founder Fabiano Gullane said..   

Produced with Globo Filmes and Telecine, “The Hanged” is co-produced by Portugal’s Fado Filmes. Paris Filmes distributes in Brazil. It will go into production second semester 2022,

“’The Hanged’ has been long delayed due to the pandemic but we are very honored to have two of the biggest acting stars, part of recent Brazilian cinema history,” said producer Caio Gullane.

Other pics on the Gullane slate are led by Hamburger’s “Paulo Freire: The Story of Revolution,” which comes 16 years after the Oscar-shortlisted Berlin Competition contender “The Year My Parents Went on Vacation,” produced by Gullane and directed by Hamburger.

A drama, it catches Freire as he launches a successful adult literacy initiative in the humble city of Anglicos in 1964. 

But a U.S. government-backed military coup shutters Freire’s program, forcing him into exile where he writes a masterpiece, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”

“To bring part of Paulo Freire’s life and impact to the big screen is a huge responsibility, but also a rare opportunity. His story has all the elements of a film that can provoke both emotion and incite reflection,” said Hamburger.

“Audiences will be touched while they learn about recent history and social issues which remain urgent down to this day, while also coming to know the work and mind of this great figure,” he added.

Also from Hamburger, fiction drama “School Without Gates, produced with Globo Filmes, turns on real-life figure Braz Nogueira, who transforms Campos Salles School in São Paulo’s Heliopolis favela, and a whole community with it.

Hamburger directed the International Emmy-nominated series  “Sons of Carnival” for HBO and won an International Emmy Kids award for TV Globo’s “Malhação – Young Hearts.”

Gullane also goes into production second semester 2022 on “O cobrador de fraque,” co-produced with Portugal’s Ukbar. The drama feature is directed by Tomás Portella, helmer of Netflix action thriller “Carga Maxima,” which Gullane has just started re-shooting. 

The film “uses a perfect mix of the Brazilian and Portuguese cultures to tell a very touching story,” said producer Caio Gullane

Also in the hopper at Gullane are some of Brazil and Latin America’s biggest projects and productions, such as animated feature “Noah’s Ark” and “Neon River,” from Karim Aïnouz. In late 2020, Netflix announced a “Senna” series with Gullane.  

During the pandemic, Gullane worked constantly to continue developing its movie slate. “This is a strategic interest for us,” Fabiano Gullane said at Cannes. “We want to continue providing production services for the platforms, producing with them. But we also want to own the IP of some of our projects, and movies give us that.”   

First news of Gullane’s slate comes as Fabiano Gullane called at Cannes for a second phase of regulation of Brazil’s film economy. A first was based on three pillars: Hollywood studio investment in Brazil production; muscular Ancine state film funding; and 2012 TV regulation, obliging cable investors to air 3.5 hours of independent Brazilian productions in primetime every week. 

A new public policy cycle, Gullane argued, should now include regulation of Brazil’s OTT operators and more targeted financing from Ancine, meshing both in a new model which benefits from their co-existence.  

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