LC Barreto/Filmes do Equador of Brazil and the UK’s Goldcrest Films have announced a co-production deal for period drama The Art of Losing (A Arte de Perder). The deal was announced at Festival do Rio.

The English-language film will depict the love life of Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Elizabeth Bishop, who had a relationship with the Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares during the fifties and sixties.
Bruno Barreto, best known for Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and foreign language Oscar nominee Four Days in September, will direct.

Brazilian TV and film star Gloria Pires will play de Macedo Soares but the American actress for the role of Bishop has not yet been confirmed yet. “We have a few big names in mind and we will approach our first choice next week,” says Barreto, adding that the film will be shot, starting in August 2011, in Rio, Petropolis, Belem do Para (in the north of Brazil), Venice and New York.

“As soon as we announce the main actress we will start pre-sales,” says Nick Quested, director of Goldcrest Films. “The great work of Barreto, Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles and Jose Padilha has helped to raise the awareness and interest in Brazilian cinema among international audiences,” he adds.

According to Quested, the budget is estimated at $5.5m (not including the salary of the main actress).
The Art of Losing was written by Carolina Kotscho, whose credits include Breno Silveira’s Two Sons of Francisco, one of the most successful films since the Retomada, the early-nineties renaissance of Brazilian film.

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