Portuguese director-producer Leonel Vieira, the filmmaker behind Portuguese box office hit “The Courtyard of the Ballads” (“O Pátio das Cantigas”), is moving ahead with “The Night” (“A Noite”), a José Saramago adaptation set on the night the Carnation Revolution reached a Lisbon newsroom.
The film stars Nuno Lopes, known internationally for Netflix’s “White Lines,” Adriano Luz, seen in Bille August’s “Night Train to Lisbon,” and Spain’s Enrique Arce, widely recognized for Netflix global hit “Money Heist.” Vieira previously worked with Arce on his 2008 feature “The Art of Stealing.”
A Portugal-Spain co-production, “The Night” turns on April 25, 1974, as the uprising against Portugal’s dictatorship reaches a newspaper aligned with António de Oliveira Salazar’s regime. The newsroom is split between those determined to suppress the truth and those who insist on publishing it.
The project is being presented at Cannes ahead of a Lisbon shoot scheduled to begin May 25 and continue through June.
Vieira will direct and produce through Volf Entertainment, with the participation of Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, distributor NOS Audiovisuais and ICA, the Portuguese Film and Audiovisual Institute. Spanish producer Antonio Pérez, producer of Benito Zambrano’s “Solas,” is attached to the project on the Spanish side.
