Woody Allen has shot films in Paris, Barcelona and London over the last decade, but might Rio de Janeiro be next on his itinerary? That's the hope of Rio mayor Eduardo Paes, who told O Globo that he's doing everything in his power to bring Allen to Brazil, up to and including an offer of full financial support.
"I'll pay 100 percent of the production," Paes said (translation via The Guardian). "I'll pay whatever it takes to get him to come film here." Paes revealed that he has even reached out to Allen's sister, Letty Aronson, who produces her brother's films. "I so want him to come," the mayor said.
This, of course, isn't the first time Rio has flirted with Allen. Back in 2009, Allen was reportedly offered $15 Million to produce a film in Rio by Brazil’s Conspiration film company. At the time, however, not everyone was pleased with the city's offer: "Directors like Woody Allen have big production firms and distributors behind their films, and manage to raise money to pay for new productions," producer-director Cavi Borges said. "Principally Allen, who is capable of producing and launching a film a year for many years. For this reason, I believe in it is incoherent to spend public funds to make a film in Rio. If he likes the city and wishes to show Rio in his film, why not do it with his own money?"
Allen has found shooting overseas very useful to his career. In 2010, he said that shooting in New York had become too expensive. That didn't stop him from filming parts of "Blue Jasmine," his most recent film, in New York, but it is definitely an outlier: "Blue Jasmine" was Allen's first film since 2009 to utilize Manhattan.
For more on the Rio gambit, head to The Guardian.
[via The Guardian]
