Carmen Miranda biopic Carmen set for 2027 shoot with Giovanna Lancellotti
Giovanna Lancellotti will play Carmen Miranda in "Carmen," a Portuguese- and English-language biopic set to shoot in Brazil and the United States in the second half of 2027.
The project will be unveiled on Oct. 7 at RioMarket, the business section of the Rio Film Festival, according to Variety. Esmir Filho will direct from a screenplay by Mariana Bardan and Eduardo Melo. Lancellotti will also serve as one of its producers.
Filming will take place in New York City, Rio and Maricá. Maricá will stand in for Los Angeles. The choice keeps much of the shoot in Brazil while covering both sides of Miranda's life, in South America and Hollywood.
Miranda starred in 14 features before her death from a heart attack in 1955, according to Variety. The cast will include English-speaking actors as three key figures around her: studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck, theatre impresario Lee Shubert and agent David Sebastian. Zanuck ran 20th Century Fox during Miranda's Hollywood years.
The budget is set at 61 million reais, about $20 million. Producers say 80% has already been raised through Brazilian incentives, public funding mechanisms that support shoots in the country, according to Variety. The municipality of Maricá is one of the investors.
"Carmen" is produced by Julio Uchôa's Ananã Produções, New York-based Producing Partners, Lancellotti's GL Filmes and H2O. H2O Films plans to release the film in Brazilian theatres in the second half of 2028. The producers also aim for cinema releases in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Filho directed "Homem com H," the 2025 biopic of Brazilian singer Ney Matogrosso. That credit links him directly to large-scale musical life stories.
What makes this stand out is scale. Few Brazilian productions attempt a two-language shoot with American locations and a global cinema plan from the start. For fans, this means Miranda's story is being built for audiences well beyond Brazil.
