Skarsgard searching for historic epic

RIO P JANEIRO -- Stellan Skarsgard and Joaquim p Almeida are likely to star in Canadian helmer Sylvain Archambault's "Rouge Bresil," based on Jean-Christophe Rufin's 2001 historic bestseller. The $11 million project remains setup becoming an indie worldwide co-production including France, South usa, Canada and Portugal, creating a Portuguese/British-language feature plus an British-language TV series with two cases of 100 minutes (Daily Variety, May 16). Story is occur France Antarctique, established in 1555 inside the seaside region where Rio p Janeiro is becoming situated. A haven for French Protestant Huguenots, who fled religious wars in France, the colony was ultimately flattened with the Portuguese in 1567. Skarsgard plays French explorer Nicolas Durand p Villegagnon, with p Almeida as his rival. "It shows the absurdity of religious wars. If you be considered a fundamentalist, it's dangerous to everybody," mentioned professional producer Nicolas Traube, partner and leader of Paris-based lead producer Pampa and former mind of drama for pubcaster funnel France 2. Pampa is joining track of Brazil's Conspiracao to produce the tv series and also have, which starts filming on Monday in Rio condition and may be finished inside the second quarter of 2012. According to Traube, France 2 might be the key investor round the Gallic side which is due to air french language-named series inside the partner of next season. The important thing Brazilian traders are TV Globo's theatrical arm, Globo Filmes, and Rio government's film company RioFilme. Luiz Noronha, Conspiracao partner and director for TV productions, mentioned TV Globo gets the first option to buy and air a Portuguese-named version in the series. "Inside the most likely scenario, we'll first release the feature inside the Brazilian theatrical market, then Globo will air the series," mentioned Noronha, adding Conspiracao is settling the Brazilian theatrical distribution rights with indie distrib Downtown. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com