THE AFRO-BRAZILIAN AFFAIR

ARUANAS is a Brazilian webseries created by Globoplay in 2019. Starring Taís Araújo, Leandra Leal, Debóra Falabela, Thainá Duarte and Camila Pitanga as the principal antagonist.

Orphans of a Nation (Órfãos da Terra) is a 2019 telenovela produced by Globo. It is created by Duca Rachid and Thelma Guedes famous for telenovelas like Cat's Cradle and Precious Pearl.  The telenovela stars Julia Dalvaia, Renato Góes, Alice Wegmann, and Kaysar Dadour.

Watch the trailer for the telenovela below:

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Tangled Hearts (Sangue Bom) is a 2013 telenovela produced by Globo in 2013 under direction by Denis Carvalho. The telenovela was created by Maria Adelaide Amaral and Vicente Villari. It aired on Citizen TV Kenya and was covered by Nina Novelas as well for Sub-Saharan countries via Pay TV.

Isabelle Drummond (right) and Marco Pigossi (left)

The telenovela revolved around six young couples who were basically looking to love and to be loved. The show starred Sophie Charlotte, Marco Pigossi, Isabelle Drummond, Humberto Carrão, Jayme Matarazzo, and Fernanda Vasconcellos.

Since there is usually little to no information concerning the pre-production process of filming for the public, we came across some information that is interesting concerning casting and preparation for the filming of Tangled Hearts.



● Marco Pigossi and Sophie Charlotte were reserved for the roles of Bento and Amora since the novela Fina Estampa (Looks and Essence) was on air in 2011;

● Marina Ruy Barbosa (Eliza from Total Dreamer) was the first option in the production of the plot to play the tomboy Giane, but she refused to cut her red hair, being replaced by Isabelle Drummond, who promptly met the requirement;

Marina Ruy Barbosa (left) and Isabelle Drummond (right)

● Actor Jayme Matarazzo would take on the role of playboy Fabinho and actor Humberto Carrão would play Maurício. Production of the plot opted to reverse the roles at the beginning of the plot workshops;

● The first character created by the authors was Barbara Ellen. As well as in the telenovela, the actress played by Giulia Gam was the center of the universe of the premise;

● Actor Humberto Martins would play Plinio, but gave up on the novela claiming fatigue and was replaced by actor Herson Capri;

● Actor Gil Coelho (James the Just in Jesus) would play Vinny, but was outdone in the trials by Maurício Destri;

● Actor Alexandre Slaviero would play Lucindo, but was outdone in the trials by Joaquim Lopes;

● Actress Xuxa Lopes discovered suffering from panic syndrome during filming, which is why her character Bluma was reduced to luxury figure, being exchanged in the final line by the assistant portrayed by Helena Fernandes;

● Actor Edwin Luisi abandoned Rebelde's first season without giving satisfaction to Record TV and had his work at the station interrupted. Sometime later, he appeared as Uncle Lili in Tanged Hearts ;

● Actress Thaila Ayala asked for an opportunity to be in the novela from the authors via email;

● Actress Bia Arantes set aside a role as a killer in Baby Dragon to play Cléo;

● Actor Kayky Britto (Sinval from Passione) would play Tito, but was outdone by Romulo Neto in the trials;

● Actor Antonio Firmino, who played the role of Evandro in some episodes died shortly after the end of the novela.
● Before the soap opera ended, some actors were already cast for Now Generation (Geração Brasil) in 2014.

Tangled Hearts (Source: Globo)

Igor Cosso, who graced our screens as Bezalel in Moses and the Ten Commandments has produced a short film titled The Article which is available on IGTV via his Instagram profile. 

The Article Poster (Mallory Snow and Igor Cosso)

In view of the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian broadcasters that had telenovelas and series in productions (Globo/Record/SBT) have all held their productions on pause and ongoing shows were replaced with compact editions of backlist titles.
Igor's latest role was as Junior in Globo's Salve-se Quem Puder which was airing at the 7 p.m. slot before it went on production break as a result of the pandemic. In the same vein, the actor partnered with some acquaintances of his including budding actress Mallory Snow to produce a short film.

The film called The Article basically revolves around a WhatsApp video call between long-distance couple Lucas and Pam (played by Igor Cosso and Mallory Snow respectively) whose steamy video call goes horrific after Pam falls prey to mysterious beings. This all happens right after they are texting concerning a NASA article confirming the release of UFO videos by the Pentagon...

I finally got to watch the short film today after giving it a 6-day watch out since its release and all things considered, The Article is a well laid out short film that has managed to obey and do justice to the horror genre by effecting Mystery and Suspense in a very brilliant scope and in little time as well.

The acting was very well done with Igor and Mallory acing the role of the sex-deprived couple in quarantine and I have to highly commend Mallory's brilliance is exuded during the horrific parts of the film. The directing was well structured, from the start of the film during the introduction of the entire premise via said article and the WhatsApp call gave for very decent quality, geographical, and network limitations notwithstanding. It was also very clever how we got a taste of the subject through which the mystery revolves (Non-Human Species) without entirely revealing them to us, giving for almost perfect relaying of the suspense that concludes the short film.

The Article is a testament to the fact that art cannot be suppressed regardless of time, resources, and distance. The entire team that put its heart out to giving us this short film has done a wonderful job.

Film Credits:
Written and produced by Igor Cosso
Directed by Nattannaella Verduga
With Mallory Snow and Igor Cosso
Edited by Nattannaella Verduga
Visual Effects: Ben Petterson
Assistant Visual Effects: Nando Brandao and Rajiv Uttamchandani
Special thanks to: Erica Gibaon, Heron Leal, Diego Duarte, Nando Brandão, João Vitor Silveira, Mariana Molina, Lucas Romano, Talita Tileli and Lucas Casonatti.

Watch the entire film below:

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-> Deixe a tela do IGTV cheia. -> Assista de Luzes Apagadas -> Assista pelo celular -> Se der, assista com fones de ouvido. -> Vá até o final! O curta-metragem The Article foi gravado durante a quarentena da pandemia do Corona Vírus, de forma remota por todos que integram a equipe, filmado por chamadas de vídeo e finalizado no formato da plataforma IGTV do Instagram. Esse é um projeto independente de um artista brasileiro que tem o ofício de produzir arte como profissão em tempos tão difíceis para um momento de suspiro fora da realidade. Curta, compartilhe e divulge! Ajude nosso filme a chegar a mais pessoas! Bom filme! Igor Créditos: Escrito e produzido por Igor Cosso Dirigido por Nattannaella Verduga Com Mallory Snow e Igor Cosso Editado por Nattannaella Verduga Efeitos Visuais: Ben Petterson Efeitos Visuais ajudantes: Nando Brandao e Rajiv Uttamchandani Obrigado especial a: Erica Gibaon, Heron Leal, Diego Duarte, Nando Brandão, João Vitor Silveira, Mariana Molina, Lucas Romano, Talita Tileli e Lucas Casonatti.

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Empire (Império) is a 2015 telenovela written by Aguinaldo Silva (Two Faces/Looks and Essence) and produced by Globo.

The telenovela won the 2015 International Emmy Award for Best Telenovela.


Empire tells the story of a powerful business mogul with a seemingly idyllic life, but drama couldn't be further from his life.

Heartbreak forever changed the fate of the young and humble José Alfredo. Years later, he became Commander Alfredo, a successful owner of a jewelry empire and a man obsessed with power. Temperamental and cunning, he tries to balance his turbulent marriage, an extramarital love affair, and the dispute between his children over succession in his business. One day, however, the unexpected appearance of a possible daughter, of whom he was unaware, causes upheaval in his life and takes his familial conflicts to a whole new level.

Empire premieres on the 15th of May, 2020 on Nina Novelas English.

Blood Ties (Laços de Sangue) is a Portuguese telenovela produced by SIC in conjunction with Globo (Brazil) from 2010/2011. The telenovela stars Diana Chaves, Diogo Morgado, and Joana Santos as the villain.

Blood Ties / Laços de Sangue Photo Credit: SIC Portugal/TV Globo Brazil

The telenovela tells the story of Inês and Marta, sisters who fell into a river with strong currents, one fine day as their parents took them out for a picnic. Their father saved Inês and died in the river and Marta is presumed dead but the truth is, she was found by a couple who was grieving after the death of their daughter, Diana. They named Marta after their daughter, Diana, as the events that had occurred case her to forget everything that had happened. 

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#BloodTies starts Monday 20th January at 5 p.m. on @citizentvkenya. The novela stars Diogo Morgado, Diana Chaves and Joana Santos 🇵🇹 #bloodties #laçosdesangue #citizentvkenya

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Larissa Manoela is anxious as she prepares to play her first role at Globo. The renowned 19 year old actress and popstar has built a long career at SBT since her first role at 12 years in Corações Feridos and then she became the infamous Maria Joaquina, the character used to show infantile racism in Carousel that aired on Citizen TV and the recently cancelled Friends to the Rescue where she once again wowed us with the role of totally different twins Manuela and Isabela.

Larissa Manoela

After the end of her contract with SBT in 2019, where she was playing Mirela Delfino in The Adventures of Poliana, Larissa Manoela has now signed a contract with Globo, to take effect mid year as she has professional commitments with Netflix as she prepares for the release of her latest film, Airplane Mode (Modo Avião), coming to the streaming platform on the 23rd of January.

Larissa's entrance into Globo has not come as a surprise as she actress has been eyed by broadcasters as her career progressed and the end of her contract with SBT was inevitable.

The latest news is that Larissa Manoela will play the daughter of actress Claudia Raia in the upcoming novela written by Alessandra Poggi, Além da Ilusão, which is indicated to be starting in September. The story, which will also feature Thiago Fragoso in its cast, will take place on farms and production is in search of locations in Rio de Janeiro. This will be the second time Larissa will be under the command of director Pedro Vasconcelos, with whom she worked in the cinema, in Fala Sério, Mãe! (2017)

Aguinaldo Silva, famed writer of telenovelas produced by Globo like Looks and Essence, Two Faces and the Emmy Award Winning telenovela, Empire (2015) has left Globo.

Aguinaldo Silva has been a writer of telenovelas for Globo, for more than 40 years. The writer has left because of the station not having any new projects for him to work on and his dismissal from Globo can also be due to the fact that his last telenovela, O Sétimo Guardião, was not an audience and received numerous negative criticism from both the critics as well as the general public. 

Besides that, the telenovela, starring renowned actors like Total Dreamer's Marina Ruy Barbosa and Precious Pearl's Bruno Gagliasso, supposedly encounters many problems in production along the way.

Coupled with the fact that his stay at Globo has been a lengthy one and over decades, his dismissal does not come as a surprise as Globois now in an era of restructuring its drama department and staff dismissals have been heard of, and the writers are no exception. Layoffs of more writers will be even less of a surprise.

Aguinaldo has written revered telenovelas for Globo such as Partido Alto (1984), O Outro (1987), Vale Tudo (1988), Tieta (1989), Pedra Sobre Pedra (1992), Fera Ferida (1993, A Indomada (1997), Mild Poison (1999), Port of Miracles (2001), Her Own Destiny (2004)
 as well as co-author of famous novelas such as the highly acclaimed Roque Santeiro (1985) and Meu Bem Querer (1998)

Here is what Aguinaldo had to say about leaving Globo (from Leo Dias' column:

I've been in Grupo Globo since 1969 (when I joined the newspaper ' O Globo '), that is, more than 50 years, 41 of which in I was in TV Globo. It was a wonderful relationship that resulted in the greatest successes in Brazilian television history. But, like everything, there is the moment when it all comes to an end, and that's what happened. The company goes through a new restructuring policy in the face of the current economic environment as well as the increasingly constant presence of new media, new habits, new values! I was extraordinarily happy in this long professional relationship: I gave the best of me and always received due recognition. Now it's time to go to new challenges!

Aguinaldo Silva

Telenovelas are a big deal in the Brazilian market, as they make up part of the artistic, audiovisual and entertainment of the society's culture.

In Brazil, telenovelas are primarily produced by Rede Globo, Brail's largest audiovisual media conglomerate, SBT, and RecordTV. While most telenovelas produced in Brazil are great record breakers, some left a lot to be desired amongst the Brazilian audience and yet, surprisingly, managed to get good numbers when sold to other countries and below, we have a list of these telenovelas that managed to be international successes:

Apocalypse 



The telenovelas, written by Vivian de Oliveira of the Moses and the Ten Commandments fame, was an audience repellent when it aired in RecordTV, back home in Brazil. However, the same cannot be said for the dystopian drama when it premiered this year on the UniMás network in the USA, where dubbed in Spanish and titled Apocalipsis, the novela, starring Igor Rickli, Juliana Knust and Sergio Marone in the titular roles, scored a viewership of 700,000 households, making it the most-watched program at that hour.

The Rich and Lazarus 



The Rich and Lazarus, written by Paula Richard, had modest viewership dropping from 15 to 10 points, as compared to its predecessor, The Promised Land ( A Terra Prometida ) which is set to premiere in English dub, on January 6th in the UK only on mytv (The two mentioned shows in this paragraph will probably make it to Kenya on KTN )

The telenovela was acquired by Univision in the USA, also dubbed in Spanish under the title El Rico y Lazaro and led audience ratings to the point that protagonist actor Dudu Azevedo had to travel abroad in promoting the show.

The Rich and Lazarus stars Igor Rickli, Dudu Azevedo and Milena Toscano.

Jesus



Jesus, also written by Paula Richard, is beyond being a success in international markets. In Brazil, the telenovela raised the rating from direct predecessors, Apocalypse and Leah, but did not make it to grand success-level, in national terms. 

The same cannot be said for when the telenovela aired in the USA on Univision. Now only was the audience so great, but it finally became the most-watched Brazilian telenovela in American television history.

The Life we Lead 



Produced by Globo, The Life we Lead has been sold to over 95 countries.The telenovela, written by Licia Manzo who was debuting as a writer of telenovelas with the show, did not do well according to Ibope numbers and failed miserably from the first to the last episode.

The number of countries it has been sold to, however, proves the veracity and trueness of the story. It was sold with an international version of 70 episodes and the sales beat those for O Clone and Terra Nostra. Not bad, huh?

Side By Side



Irrational Heart



This second partnership between Gilberto Braga and Ricardo Linhares - the first one being Tropical Paradise (2007) - aired in a period of audience crisis for the prime time of Globo. Perhaps because of this - and also for some really problematic points of the work - it took a while to get into the good sides of Ibope and ended up with a median average.

Even because of this factor, it can be said that the repercussion of Irrational Heart on the international market was surprising, although not so phenomenal. Broadcast to over 30 countries, the work was so successful in Uruguay that it ended up broadcasting in exclusive movie screenings to the most ardent fans.


In Argentina, Irrational Heart was cast to replace the successful Avenida Brasil and was able to hold on to the audience of the previous show.

Brave Woman


Rejected by the public and trampled by critics, the story created by Gloria Perez knocked down the rates of Avenida Brasil , its predecessor in prime time of Globo, from 39 to 34 points. Abroad, however, Brave Woman is remembered as one of the most watched Brazilian attractions of the last decade, even transforming actress Nanda Costa into the media darling of many countries.

Total Dreamer actress Marina Ruy Barbosa, who last worked on TV on Globo's O Sétimo Guardião, written by Aguinaldo Silva, will be coming to back to TV for an appearance in Globo's Bom Sucesso.

Bom Sucesso is a telenovela created by Total Dreamer writing duo, Rosanne Svartman and Paulo Halm, and tells the story of Paloma, mother of three who finds out that she is terminally ill, but later finds out that the test results were altered and she seeks to find the person whose results had been presumed to be hers in an effort to comfort and get to know him/her. 

Bom Sucesso is currently an audience success on Rede Globo, starring Grazi Massafera, Rômulo Estrela, David Junior, Antônio Fagundes, Ingrid Guimarães, Fabiula Nascimento, Armando Babaioff and Sheron Menezzes in the main roles. 

Marina Ruy Barbosa will be reprising her role from Total Dreamer as Eliza de Assis, who will come for a photoshoot in the episodes she is scheduled to be in and will meet Paloma, who will tell Eliza that she followed the entire Total Dreamer contest and was rooting for her the entire time.

Marina Ruy Barbosa has been on vacation since the end of O Sétimo Guardião as a way to refresh her image before she can return to the small screen but she has accepted the role in Bom Sucesso as it will only be for a few episodes

Marina Ruy Barbosa

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Dani Moreno is an artist who can be described in many ways, but because we needed to get the detailed description from the subject herself, I spoke to this amazingly talented actress of Brave Woman and Friends to the Rescue, and she is truly a personality made of more than meets the eye

Dani Moreno

TABA: Describe Dani Moreno