‘Bionic’ Director Afonso Poyart to Make Two Movies With Brazil’s Paris Entretenimento (EXCLUSIVE)
RIO DE JANEIRO — Paris Entretenimento, the production arm of top Brazilian distribution company Paris, will produce two features, “My Life with Shurastey” and “Bahamas Club,” helmed by Afonso Poyart, director of Colin Farrell, Anthony Hopkins starrer “Solace” and just out Brazilian Netflix action thriller “Bionic.”
“My Life with Shurastey”(“Minha vida com Shurastey”) is to be lensed in the U.S. and Argentina in the first semester of 2025, while “Bahamas Club” is scheduled to go into production in Brazil in the second half of 2025. Each pic has a budget about RS25 million ($5 million), Veronica Stumpf, head of Paris Entretenimento, told Variety.
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Based on the homonymous travel diary of Jesse Kozechen, “My Life with Shurastey” turns on a young Brazilian who quits his boring job in order to travel the Americas in a Volkswagen Beetle with his dog Shurastey. He first drove to Ushuaia, Argentina, in the Southern tip of South America. Then, he was on his way to Alaska, when he had a fatal car accident in May 2022.
Ana Reber, who wrote most episodes of Globoplay’s version of “In Therapy,” is penning the screenplay.
“Bahamas Club” is based on the life story of 73-year-old Oscar Maroni. The controversial entrepreneur owns in Sao Paulo the Bahamas Hotel Club, a high-class sex club “dedicated to the philosophy of hedonism.” Maroni, who is a psychologist, was charged of exploiting prostitution and was jailed for more than a month in 2007, but was eventually acquitted of all charges.
Maroni also owns cattle farms and a hotel, and is the publisher in Brazil of the Penthouse and Hustler magazines. He ran for Sao Paulo city council office in 2018, but was not elected. In 2014, he participated on open-TV Record’s reality show “A Fazenda.”
Marcos Bernstein, who co-wrote Walter Salles’ Oscar-nominated “Central Station,” is penning the pic’s screenplay.
“Both projects attract the public’s attention, for different reasons. ‘Shurastey’ is a story of resilience, love and friendship. As for the ‘Bahamas Club,’ it is the controversial tale of an entrepreneur building an empire, which instigates people’s curiosity about the universe of prostitution,” said Veronica Stumpf.
After directing prize-winning music videos,Poyart made his debut in film in 2012 with indie feature “2 Coelhos” (Two Rabbits), a pic with breathtaking action scenes, despite its low budget. That paved the way for Poyart’s international career, which saw him helm “Solace,” a thriller, in 2015.
Back in Brazil, the 45-year-old Poyart helmed “Mais Forte que o Mundo” (a pic with a spin-off TV series), Globoplay TV series “Iron Island” and “Bionic,” which opened in Brazil on May 29.
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