In one of the later deals pacted at the San Sebastian Festival, Spain’s David Matamoros of Doce Entertainment boarded Matías Rojas’s adaptation of Chilean cult novel “Dog Legs” (“Patas de perro”), joining four other producers from Chile, France, Germany and Colombia.
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With this, “Dog Paws” enters the final phase of its financing and is expected to shoot in Valdivia, Chile during the second half of next year. Chile’s ever popular Alfredo Castro (Pablo Larraín’s “The Count,” “The Club”) is attached to star.
“Spain’s involvement decisively strengthens the project and puts us in a very strong position to complete its financing,” said Federico Durán, the film’s Colombian producer through his new company El Sol Ermitaño. Durán, who has produced such notable films as “The Squad” and “Alias María,” just won a major post production award for his WIP project “Lovers Go Home!” at San Sebastián.
“’Dog Legs’ is an ambitious project, both technically and artistically, but it also aims to reach a broad audience,” he told Variety.
Matamoros, whose credits include “The Platform” and “The Virgin of the Quarry,” was also a producer at Zentropa Spain, the company founded by Lars von Trier.
Chile’s A Simple Vista, led by Tomás Gerlach, first began developing “Dog Legs” some four years ago. This year, Reality Films, the production arm of French distributor Epicentre Films, which distributes Colombia’s Cannes-winning film “A Poet” and submission to the 98th Academy Awards international feature category, came on board at the 76th Berlinale, joining German company Klinker Films, a co-producer of “A Place Called Dignity,” Rojas’ previous film.
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Visual effects will be handled by French company MPC, whose credits include Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” winner of Best VFX at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival and the French César Awards.
Rojas’s ties to San Sebastian run deep. He premiered his debut feature, “Root,” at the festival 13 years ago. He later returned to its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum with his second fiction feature, “A Place Called Dignity.”
Throughout his career, he has presented his films and projects at major international festivals including Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, the Berlinale and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).
Published in 1965, “Dog Legs “is a landmark of Chilean literature…radical, powerful, and still deeply unsettling. Six decades later, its themes of exclusion, abuse and violence remain strikingly relevant. The story follows Bobi, a 12-year-old boy born with literal dog’s paws, hidden away by his family until Carlos, a lonely, childless man, takes him in. His act of compassion turns the town against them, casting Carlos as a madman and Bobi as a monster and setting them on a devastating path toward violence.