Hasta La Motion!

Noah’s Ark– A Musical Adventure, a co-production among Walter Salles’ Video Filmes and Caio and Fabiano Gullane’s production company Gullane, has signed with Indian animation studio Symbiosys Technologies, headed by CEO Naresh Kumar with studios in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, India. The co-production is the first Brazilian/ Indian co-production of a 3D animated feature film. The deal between the parties was brokered by Cinema Management Group (CMG), the film’s sales agent on behalf of Gullane and Symbiosys Technologies following four months of negotiations.

From Left to Right : Fabiano Gullane, Naresh Kumar, Sumedha Saraogi, Edward Noeltner

Over 20 international distributors having signed up for Noah’s Ark since it was launched on the international market by CMG last year. The animated feature is being directed by Sérgio Machado and will feature songs by Brazilian singer/ composers Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim. In addition to Moraes’ many musical works and poems, he wrote the underlying story to Cannes Palm d’Or and Oscar winning foreign language feature Black Orphus (the only feature film ever to win both prestigious awards in the same year).

Noah’s Ark was initially introduced to the international market by Fabiano Gullane at Ventana Sur’s Animation Spotlight in Buenos Aires for Latin American animation. CMG’s president Edward Noeltner said, “When I heard Fabiano’s pitch at Ventana Sur and then read the script, we were convinced Noah’s Ark would find audiences around the world. The film’s principal characters, two adventurous minstrel mice, embark on humorous new telling of the story with the amazing music of Vinicius de Moraes as a backdrop.”

Symbiosys Technologies learned of Noah’s Ark thanks to its co-production on another CMG licensed property, Salma’s big Wish (Dia De Muertos) which is also a far-flung international co-production between India based Symbiosys and Mexico based Metacube Technology & Entertainment in Guadalajara. During CMG sales efforts on Salma’s big Wish, Noeltner was approached by Symbiosys Technology director of global business Sumedha Saraogi, who immediately felt that they could become a vital partner on Noah’s Ark much like they did for Metacube on Salma’s big Wish. “With the high level of 3D animation being delivered by Symbiosys, the decision to embark on a Brazilian – Indian co-production was not that difficult to make, though it still took four months to find the right work-split and financial relationship among the parties,” said Noeltner. Assisting in determining the right work-split along with other technical details to the co-production were the film’s co-producers Daniel Greco and Felipe Sabino from NIP (Tito and the Birds).

Gullane producers Caio Gullane and Fabiano Gullane mentioned, “We are very happy with closing this partnership with Symbiosys Technologies. During the trip to India, our team was very impressed with the quality of their professional and technical standards of their studios. We are confident that through the joint efforts of Gullane, Symbiosys and CMG in Noah’s Ark we will deliver to the market a funny family audience film, which will be a success around the world.”

The film’s leading characters are two cute, free-thinking mice named Vini, a charismatic poet who suffers from terrible stage fright and Tito, a talented musician who’s also naturally elegant and always accompanied by his inseparable guitar. As only one male and one female of each species are allowed on the ark, Vini tries to board the ark in drag (in a homage to Some Like It Hot) only to be found out by Noah and kicked off the ship. But with the help of the ingenious cockroach Alfonso and fate’s good luck, Vini makes his way back on to the ark and together with Tito, they avert a showdown among the ships carnivores, led by the self-important lion Baruk, and the herbivores led by the hugely comical old goat Severino. Staging a talent contest to buy time before the ark runs out of food, the animals perform a series of classic songs by Vinicius de Moraes until finally, land is sighted after 40 days and 40 nights, bringing a happy ending to the ark’s perilous journey.

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