John Turturro and Vanessa Paradis have joined the anthology film “Rio, I Love You,” the third in the “Cities I Love” series.
U.S. and international sales are being handled by WestEnd Films, which has a promo reel at Berlin. Warner Bros. is handling in Latin America, including Brazil.
Turturro directs himself and Paradis in a one of the 10 segments and is the only U.S. director on the project.
Brazilian filmmakers include Fernando Meirelles, Jose Padilha and Andrucha Waddington. Other directors who have completed segments for the film include Korean Im Sang-soo, Aussie Stephan Elliott, Paolo Sorrentino and Guillermo Arriaga and Nadine Labaki.
The film’s stars include: Harvey Keitel, Emily Mortimer, Basil Hoffman, Vincent Cassel, Jason Isaacs, Fernanda Montenegro, Labaki, Wagner Moura, Rodrigo Santoro, Roberta Rodrigues, Tonico Pereira, Claudia Abreu, Bruna Linzmeyer, Laura Neiva, Land Vieira, Michel Melamed and Marcio Garcia.
Labaki’s segment, starring Keitel, was shot in Rio’s Leopoldina Train Station. Waddington’s was shot in the Cinelandia area in Downtown Rio and stars Montenegro. Padilha’s segment takes place in the skies above Rio.
“Rio I Love You” is being produced by Empyrean’s Joshua Skurla, Dan Klabin, Conspiracao’s Pedro Buarque de Hollanda and Bossa Nova Films’ Denise Gomes. Executive producers include Emmanuel Benbihy, Leonardo M. Barros, Eliana Soorez, Ricardo Rangel, Eduardo Tibirica, Ariel Elia and Marcos Tellechea.
Benbihy has completed an anthology film on Tbilisi, Georgia, and has been developing the “Cities of Love” series since 2000 via his Ever So Close banner to sell cities one-picture licenses. Benbihy is aiming to develop an online platform of city-driven cultural and social movements that will feature such locations as Shanghai, Berlin, Taipei, Mexico City, Rotterdam, New Orleans, Mumbai, Jerusalem, Sydney and Tokyo.
2006’s “Paris, je t’aime” grossed $17 million worldwide. “New York I Love You” grossed $8 million in 2009.
