santos Tagged Articles at Cinematical

By Monday, we were more than halfway through Fantastic Fest. On the one hand, festgoers who were just there for the weekend had departed, thinning the crowds slightly. On the other hand, some of us realized that there were still tons of movies to see and only a limited time, so we had better try to get into as many films as we could. I know some people who managed to see 5 or 6 films a day. I'm not one of them -- too wimpy.

One movie I saw and liked on Monday was Santos, a superhero film from Chile. When director Nicolas Lopez took the stage before the movie, I recognized him as one of the judges from Thursday night's Air Sex Championships. He was a wonderfully unpredictable judge and turned out to be a charming speaker during the intro and later during the Q&A for his film (as shown in the photo after the jump). Santos is about a comic-book artist who doesn't realize he has the same superpowers as one of the characters he writes about -- and at various points in his life, he's called upon to use those powers. It's very funny, but if you get the chance to see it, bear in mind that many of the gags are not at all family-friendly. Santos was produced by Elizabeth Avellan of Austin's Troublemaker Studios (which produces Robert Rodriguez's films) -- no U.S. distribution deals as of yet, but I hope that changes.

"I'm tired of seeing movies where we are all poor and barefoot and we don't know what Wi-Fi is," says Nicolás Lopez, director of the upcoming superhero romantic comedy Santos (pictured at right; see his blog for the proper context of the photo). In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lopez talked about the challenges of making a movie in his native Chile: "When your country is located in the ass of the world and it's named like a condiment, it's hard to get people to take you seriously." Yet there are also advantages: "Chile is ideal. You can make things for a price, and there is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement down there." I wrote about Lopez last month and wondered if he could pull off the delicate balance between comedy, romance and comic book fantasies. As the interview explains, Lopez has already developed two strong alliances.

The first is with producer Elizabeth Avellan. She met Lopez when his previous film played at South by Southwest and has served as a mentor. In a recent e-mail to Cinematical, Lopez said Avellan has come on board as a producer of Santos and mentioned that he is currently working at Troublemaker Studios in Austin to finish the visual effects for the film; efforts are also being made to secure American theatrical distribution. Santos will open in Chile and Spain on November 1. The second alliance is with Salma Hayek's production company Ventanazul, which intends to make Lopez' next film as part of their joint venture with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. The plan is to start filming on that English-language project -- described as "a John Ford western, Terminator, and Back to the Future rolled into one" -- next spring. Notably, Lopez insisted on filming in Chile and has visions of building a state-of-art studio there so as to help create an infrastructure for the local film industry. Can't wait to see what he dreams up next.

[Via GreenCine Daily]

Does the world need another movie about a comic book hero? How about one that's described as "a romantic comedy about the end of the world"? In Santos, an upcoming film from writer/director Nicolás López, the title character is a "failed comic book artist [who] lives in a parallel universe where he's a superhero who has to save the world." I grant you, the premise doesn't sound terribly original -- it may even make you groan -- but comedies are all about the execution, and some of the actors involved give me reason for optimism. Leonardo Sbaraglia made sharp dramatic turns in both Intacto (directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo of 28 Weeks Later fame) and The Whore and the Whale; I'd love to see what he does in a comedy. Guillermo Toledo brought true inspired lunacy to his lead role in Alex de la Iglesia's Ferpect Crime. And Elsa Pataky is simply beautiful, which may be sexist but is always a bonus for a romantic comedy.

According to the official web site, director López is just 24 years of age, yet has been making films for half his life. The IMDb bio says that his influences include Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith. He was heavily involved with the comedy series Piloto MTV, which aired on MTV Latin America. His first film, Below Average, was a big hit in Chile and screened at South by Southwest and the Los Angeles Film Festival, though Variety savaged it as a "tiresome" regurgitation of American movies. The trailer for Santos looks stylish and cool, setting up an apocalyptic mood before tossing stock comic book hero images into the mix. Who knows if López actually has the chops to pull this off, and if the appeal will translate beyond his homeland, but I'm keeping my nerd-loving foreign language-biased fingers crossed. Santos is set to fly into Chilean theaters in November 2007.

[Via Jaman Message Boards]