Fox boxes up Brazil horror

Produced by Gullane Filmes and Olhos de Cao, "Embodiment" finishes a trilogy begun back in the '60s by Marins, who himself played the diabolical character Ze de Caixao ("Coffin Joe") on two pics, "At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul," and "This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse."

Marins, now in his 70s, also toplines "Embodiment" as the indefatigably evil Coffin Joe.

Fox has also taken a minority production equity in the horror pic, which starts with Coffin Joe leaving jail.

Adding another element to an internationally skewed slate, Gullane has also acquired rights to Brazilian best-seller "Favela Hi-Tech," a novella written by journalist Marco Lacerda and set in Tokyo.

A romantic actioner that marks a currently rare move into English-language film-making from Brazil, "Favela" is set in Tokyo and turns on an American who seeks to rescue a Brazilian girl from the clutches of the Japanese mafia. Having just closed the book deal, Gullane have yet to attach a screenwriter and director, said CEO Fabiano Gullane.

One of Brazil's biggest indie production houses, Gullane has also inked a deal for Germany's Media Luna to take international on "The World in Two Round Trips," a documentary about the Brazilian Schurmann family's round-the-world yacht trip, following the route taken by Ferdinand Magellan.

Gullane said he aimed to set up "Favela" as a Brazil, U.S. and Japan co-production. Another Brazil-Asian production set up at Gullane, "Plastic City," has almost completed Brazilian financing, Gullane said. Some 70% of financing will come from tax coin. It will shoot late 2007, he added.

Pic will be directed by Nelson Yu Lik wai, and co-produced by the Hong Kong and Beijing shingle Xstream Pictures Production. It turns on Chinese and Japanese triad wars in Sao Paulo.