Netflix has shared details on its next Brazilian original series, “O Cangaceiro do Futuro,” a comedy caper starring Edmilson Filho (“O Shaolin do Sertão,” “Cine Holliúdy”) and Chandelly Braz (“Now Generation,” “Sparkling Girls “) which will hit the platform later this year.
Glaz, which previously collaborated with Netflix on “Get the Goat,” produces the series, which was created by Halder Gomes (“O Shaolin do Sertão,” “Cine Holliúdy”), a writer-director-producer who has worked many times with “O Cangaceiro do Futuro” lead Filho, achieving popular success in both theatrical features and TV.
Filming has already wrapped on the series, which shot in the rural town of Quixadá, in Ceará, Northeast Brazil, before wrapping in São Paulo. The show’s shoot and incorporation of talent such as Gomes, from Caerá capital Fortaleza, are examples of Netflix’s “goal to expand to all regions of Brazil,” as Elisabetta Zenatti, VP, Brazilian Content, announced last November.
The series turns on Virguley (Filho), a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none who is struggling to make ends meet in the big city, every day farther away from his dream of becoming rich and returning to his home in the Northeast.
While between jobs, Virguley gets by thanks to a striking resemblance to Lampião, likely the twentieth century’s most successful bandit leader and the face of the Cangaço era. One day on the “job,” Virguley gets into a mess and has his bell rung, only to wake up in 1927 where he is mistaken for the real Lampião. Always an opportunist, he rounds up Lampião’s bandits, falls in love with local María (Chandelly Braz) and quickly establishes himself as the town’s de facto leader… at least until the real Lampião shows up.
O Cangaceiro do Futuro
Credit: Netflix
“It’s a joy to bring a cultural and historical icon from the Northeast to the rest of Brazil and the world,” explains Gomes. “The era of these outlaws is an endless source of inspiration, and I’ve long wanted to create a comedy about this moment in time.
“The show revives some of the most famous characters in the rural Northeast, and they collide with modern survival, as represented by Virguley… To have a project like this take place in Ceará — one with a financial, cultural and artistic impact as well as one that benefits tourism — takes me back to the beginning of my career when I dreamed of having Hollywood at home so that I would never have to leave my country,” he adds.
Last November, Netflix hosted a massive, multimedia roadshow from Brazil, teasing several new series and films and promising big things for the future of local Brazilian content to the tune of 40 titles in development or production at that time.
Other key Brazilian titles teased on that day included Morena-films co-produced “Todo Dia a Mesma Noite,” a limited series drama inspired by the true story of a fire in 2013 at nightclub Boate Kiss which left 242 people dead; “Bionicos,” Netflix Brazil’s first action sci-fi film; and the streamer’s first Brazilian kids and family originals “The Nutty Boy” and “Wake Up, Carlo.”
“While we saw the conversations and the impact that stories have on the world, we wanted to dig deeper to understand how stories bring people closer to a country like Brazil,” said Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings during the presentation. “There is so much more to discover and fall in love with. So many more diverse Brazilian stories to be told.”