By Manuela Andreoni, Isabel Teles and Ricardo Brito
SAO PAULO, May 15 (Reuters) – American actor Jim Caviezel’s upcoming feature “Dark Horse,” a biopic about former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has been billed by a movie industry publication as a thriller about the far-right firebrand’s battle “against a corrupt establishment.”
But this week that production was entangled in a scandal rocking the very establishment it meant to denounce.
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son and chosen successor to compete in this year’s presidential elections, confirmed on Wednesday that he had lined up funding for the film from disgraced banker Daniel Vorcaro, who was arrested in March on suspicion of leading a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.
The senator described a contract with Vorcaro to support the film, but said the deal was not connected with the fraud investigation into Vorcaro being conducted by Brazil’s Federal Police.
“What happened was a son seeking private sponsorship for a private film about his own father’s story,” the senator said in a statement, adding that he met the banker before news of the investigation broke. “I did not offer any benefits in return.”
The scandal involving Vorcaro’s failed lender Banco Master has consumed Brazilian politics this year, with figures across the political spectrum trying to link their rivals to the bank and distance themselves.
That included Senator Bolsonaro himself, who had recently denied any connection to the now jailed Vorcaro, accused by police of trying to bribe regulators and defraud investors.
“The left is trying to create narratives aiming to somehow link Bolsonaro to the Banco Master issue, but it doesn’t stick,” he told reporters this month.
“It wasn’t Bolsonaro who met secretly with Vorcaro — it was Lula,” he added, referring to a December meeting between the banker and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Senator Bolsonaro and Lula are virtually tied in recent polls ahead of Brazil’s October presidential election, although the Vorcaro scandal has likely hurt the challenger, pollsters said this week.
DINNER INVITE FOR A ‘BROTHER’
News website The Intercept Brasil on Wednesday reported, citing documents and messages it had seen, that Vorcaro had promised Flavio Bolsonaro $24 million to help produce the film and that so far effectively half of that had been paid.
The report included an audio message and several texts purporting to be between the senator and the banker in which they call each other “brother.” A source close to the Federal Police investigation confirmed to Reuters that the messages were among the records seized by police.
GOUP Entertainment, the production house behind “Dark Horse,” said the film had over 10 investors, but had not received “a single cent” from Vorcaro or any of his companies.
GOUP did not reply to questions about the film’s budget, but said Senator Bolsonaro had contacted private investors.
Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that Vorcaro had stopped honoring the contract installments and as a consequence he and others had sought other investors.
“Dark Horse” is scheduled to come out in September, a month before the Brazilian election.
American director Cyrus Nowrasteh told Deadline last month that the film, inspired by the life of former president Bolsonaro, played by Caviezel, is “a tense political thriller about power, media and faith under fire.”
A few weeks after filming wrapped in December, Caviezel posted a message wishing a merry Christmas to the former president, recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election.
“Pray with me for our brother Jair and his family,” he wrote.
Representatives for Caviezel and Nowrasteh did not reply to requests for comment.
The Intercept Brasil report included a text exchange from October, which the source confirmed was among the seized records, in which the senator asked if Vorcaro wanted to have dinner with Caviezel and Nowrasteh.
“Where will it be? Do you want to do it at my place?” the banker replied, about a month before he was first arrested.
“We can do it at your place!” the senator wrote back.
Reuters was unable to establish if that meeting happened.
BIG BUDGET
Though the film’s budget has not been disclosed, a commitment of $24 million as reported by the Intercept would make “Dark Horse” one of the most expensive Brazilian films ever made.
Brazil’s Oscar nominee this year, “The Secret Agent,” cost $5 million. Last year’s Oscar winner “I’m Still Here,” by billionaire Brazilian director Walter Salles, cost $9 million, according to media reports.
“Sound of Freedom,” a recent Caviezel film set in Colombia, cost $14.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Kleber Mendonca Filho, the director of “The Secret Agent,” a vocal critic of Jair Bolsonaro who has spoken out against the former president’s efforts to cut public funding for the arts, took to social media to celebrate the scandal.
“It’s a great day for Brazilian cinema made in the reality of hard work,” he wrote, adding that one of his own thrillers, “Bacurau,” cost about $1.5 million to make.
(Reporting by Manuela Andreoni and Isabel Teles in Sao Paulo, Ricardo Brito in BrasiliaEditing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O’Brien)
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