Sony Pictures Classics Acquires U.S. Rights to "Chico & Rita" Director's Next Film, "They Shot The Piano Player"

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the U.S. broadcast rights to the upcoming animated feature They Shot The Piano Player from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, the directors of the Academy Award-nominated Chico and Rita (2010). The company has acquired the U.S. rights to the film.

The deal was negotiated with Film Constellation, the film's distributor, and included rights to other major territories including Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, the Middle East, Turkey, and Southeast Asia except Taiwan and Korea.

"They Shot the Piano Player" tells the story of a New York music journalist who investigates the truth behind the tragic disappearance of a young Brazilian piano virtuoso, Tenorio Junior.

The film, which screened at last year's Work in Progress session in Annecy, celebrates the Latin music movement bossa nova at a turning point in the region's history during the 1960s and 1970s, just before the continent was overrun by totalitarian regimes, It proposes a snapshot of a fleeting period of creative freedom.

The film is narrated by Jeff Goldblum and features Brazilian musicians João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, and Paulo Moura.

Using digital 2D techniques, the film presents scenes in a variety of styles and palettes, depending on the tone of the story. The interviews are nicely colored with everyday tones, while the bossa nova scenes set in Rio de Janeiro feature more explosive colors.

The film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC in Spain, Serge Lalou of Les Films d'Ici (Josep) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof of Submarine in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana of Portugal. Executive producers are Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabian Westerhof of Film Constellation, London.