Germany’s Greenlight Media, the producer with BBC Worldwide of event docu pics “Deep Blue” and “Planet Earth”, has taken its first step into feature film production, boarding Gerardo Olivares’ ethnic soccer comedy “The Great Match”. Pic is produced by José Maria Morales’ Wanda Films in Spain.
Greenlight has taken a 20% equity stake in the film. Wanda will keep the rights to the Spanish-speaking world and Greenlight those to the German-speaking world. Olivares’ feature film debut, the €2.1 million ($2.7 million) film is a satiric take on globalism. It charts the efforts of Mongol nomads, Tuareg camel riders, Greenland Eskimos and Amazon Indians to watch the 2002 World Cup final on TV.
The Tuaregs, for example, have a TV set but no batteries. The Mongols tap into a public utility pole, but are then arrested by the local military.
Two thirds of the film has been shot, Morales told Variety. “Great Match” was inspired when Olivares saw how Mongolian Nomads followed electricity netwoks so that they could watch Brazilian telenovelas on TV.