Cannes: Fernando Meirelles Co-Producing Dystopian Thriller ‘The Animal Race’ (Exclusive)

Fernando Meirelles’ and his O2 Filmes shingle is boarding Ernesto Solis’ live-action feature debut “The Animal Race,” a dystopian thriller set in Rio de Janeiro.Budgeted at roughly $5 million, it will likely be one of the most expensive films to come out of Brazil in recent times.Variety has been given access to a teaser trailer.Meirelles co-produces the Portuguese-language sci-fi drama with former MGM executive Vinicio Espinosa of U.S.-based 11600 Films along with O2 partners Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Bel Berlinck.“In an extremely unusual way, ‘The Animal Race’ comments on the path that our civilization is taking,” said Meirelles, adding: “The project is very different from what you see coming out of Brazil and that’s why I decided to embrace it.”Barata Ribeiro concurred: “What fascinated me was the originality of the story; the script caught me from the first page.”Solis, who has been the

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