Rio de Janeiro Mayor Offers to Fully Fund Woody Allen’s Next Movie

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, will stop at nothing to entice Woody Allen to film his next movie in the Brazilian city—even offering to fully fund the entire project!

“I really want him to come,” Paes told the newspaper, O Globo. “I’ve already tried everything. I spoke to his sister, I sent a letter to Calatrava [the Spanish architect], who is his neighbor in New York, and I’ll pay whatever it takes to bring him to film here.”

In recent years, the 77-year-old filmmaker has made movies in other European cities such as Paris and Barcelona with the encouragement of the local governments, but Paes is taking it to the next level, offering to “pay 100 percent of the production.”

Realizing that his generous overture may upset some citizens (many have protested the government’s spending on wasteful projects), Paes says that his offer is part of a larger plan to bring international film studios to Rio. “We consider this to be an industry that’s important for the city,” he explains.