Closing in on one of the leading voices in Caribbean cinema, Sony Pictures Television has acquired from Latido Films Latin American rights to “Hotel Coppelia,” directed by Dominican filmmaker José María Cabral.
Produced by Santo Domingo-based Rafael Elías Muñoz at Lantica Media and Cabral’s outfit Tabula Rasa, “Hotel Coppelia” is a real events-inspired drama, set during the 1965 Revolution in Dominican Republic.
The story focus on a forlorn band of prostitutes, forced to pick sides when the American military invades and the soldiers hole up in their seaside brothel.
“It would be impossible to think of a better house to have ‘Hotel Coppelia’ seen in Latin America,” Latido Films CEO Antonio Saura told Variety about the Sony Pictures deal.
“The film deals with great intelligence with important issues of the history not only of the Dominican Republic but of all the region, but seen through the eyes of unexpected protagonists, caught in events that are beyond their reach. Humanity, love, solidarity leap out through the beautiful images created by the extremely gifted director José María Cabral,” Saura added.
“This is an important deal also for the great work being done from the Dominican Republic to support a cinematography that is finding its voice and its presence in the Latin American market,” he said.
“We are very proud to continue working with the outstanding Latido team, whom we consider partners,” said Rafael Elías Muñoz vice-president at Lantica Media. “José María Cabral is a unique voice in Latin American cinema and we are delighted that Sony will be amplifying his vision and show one of the many marvellous films currently coming from the Dominican Republic.”
Cabral was the first Dominican filmmaker to have a film at the Sundance Festival, “Woodpeckers,” a heavily-researched take on the Dominican Republic’s prison system, which notched up top awards at the Guadalajara and Toulouse Latin American film festivals in 2017.
He has become a leading light of a new generation of Dominican incentives-backed auteurs who combine a sense of genre and narrative urgency often with an arthouse social edge.
“With the film acquisition by Sony Pictures, now more people will be able to know the ‘Hotel Coppelia’ story around the world. It is an opportunity to bring Caribbean and Dominican stories to the eyes of viewers from different places. We are very excited,” Cabral told Variety.
One of the Spanish-speaking world’s top sales companies for arthouse and crossover films, Latido has unveiled further sales deals during this year’s European Film Market.
These are led by the sale to pay TV operator Somos TV of U.S. rights to a package of recent Spanish movies: Local box office hit “The Kids Are Alright,” Fernando Colomo’s comedy “Polyamory for Dummies,” Óscar Aibar’s thriller “The Replacement,” Martín Cuervo’s road movie “Carpoolers” and Carlos Saura’s latest musical fiction “The King of All the World.”
Madrid-based, Latido has also inked with Eagle International worldwide airline rights to “The Kids Are All Right; Mauris Films has acquired CIS and Baltics rights to madcap comedy “García y García.”
Meanwhile, Latido has kicked-off pre-sales on Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Galicia-set thriller “The Beasts” licensing it to Rosebud, a loyal distributor in Greece of Sorogoyen’s movies.
Already announced, in high-profile Berlin news, AMC Networks’ streaming platform Shudder, operating in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K., picked up Gustavo Hernández’s high-profile horror film “Virus: 32,” which Buena Vista aims to release in Latin America this spring.
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