"OUR STARTING POINT IS ALWAYS A GOOD STORY."

(PRODUCER) The romantic comedy BOSSA NOVA is a free adaptation of Sérgio Sant'Anna's novel, A Senhorita Simpson. Bruno took the project to Lucy Barreto, a veteran Brazilian film producer, who became immediately interested.

"The starting point for any good film is always a good story. And, in this case, we were quite lucky. With a good story, a good director, a city such as Rio de Janeiro as location, two big stars, and a Bossa Nova soundtrack, I was sure we had an excellent starting point". The producer's intuition was confirmed when Alexandre Machado and Fernanda Young's screenplay was shown to the cast and crew. "Antonio Fagundes, Amy Irving, Drica de Moraes, Débora Bloch, Pedro Cardoso - all the actors were thrilled with the story after reading it. Argentine actor Alberto de Mendoza, who plays Juan, Pedro Paulo's father, said the screenplay seemed like a Mozart's pirouette. French director of photography Pascal Rabaud was also thrilled. "When we were signed on for worldwide distribution, still in its script form, and closed an association with Globo Filmes, I then knew for sure we had a terrific project in our hands."

Lucy Barreto highlights yet another uniqueness of BOSSA NOVA: it's a romantic comedy. "Brazilian cinema has lost touch with this sort of genre. Recently, we've had Sandra Werneck's Pequeno Dicionário Amoroso, and Domingos de Oliveira's Amores, but I thought we lacked a romantic comedy about Rio, showing our natural scenery, our music, to an international audience. Bruno kept saying he hadn't shot any comedies since Dona Flor, and show much he liked the genre - light, romantic, and funny."