Apparently Rio de Janeiro is not satisfied with being chosen as the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics and the host of the championship game of next year’s World Cup of soccer. Now Brazil’s most effervescent city also wants Woody Allen to make a movie there.
“I really want him to come,†Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, said in an interview published Sunday in the newspaper O Globo. “I’ve already tried everything. I spoke to his sister, I sent a letter to Calatrava, who is his neighbor in New York, and I’ll pay whatever it takes to bring him to film here,†he explained, referring to the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
In recent years, Mr. Allen has made films in European cities like Parish and Barcelona, Spain, with the encouragement of the authorities there who not only admire his films but also are interested in encouraging more tourism. Mr. Paes is so intent on joining their company, presumably to feature globally known attractions like Ipanema Beach, Sugar Loaf Mountain and Maracanã Stadium, that he offered to “pay 100 percent of the production.â€
But as part of the same interview, Mr. Paes acknowledged that financing all of the other cultural projects he has announced is going to be a challenge. “Everybody always wants more money,†he noted. And in recent months Brazil has been swept by huge demonstrations, some aimed at Mr. Paes and the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, protesting government spending on wasteful projects.
Mr. Paes, in the first year of his second term, indicated he was aware of the political dangers of his offer to Mr. Allen, saying that opponents “are going to kill me when I give Woody the millions he’s asking for.†But he sought to diminish such criticism by portraying his offer in the context of a much larger initiative to bring international film studios to Rio. “We consider this to be an industry that’s important for the city,†he said.
