Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos / Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Brazil’s biggest box-office hit until last year’s The Elite Squad 2, will be remade.At the Gramado Film Festival, currently being held in the small southern Brazilian town, actor-director Reginaldo Faria announced that his son, Marcelo Faria, will star in a new film adaptation of Jorge Amado’s bestseller. The project will also mark television director Pedro Vasconcelos‘ feature-film debut.
Bruno Barreto’s acclaimed 1976 sex comedy starred Sonia Braga, José Wilker, and Mauro Mendonça. A (quite tame) American remake directed by Robert Mulligan, and starring Sally Field, Jeff Bridges, and James Caan, was released as Kiss Me Goodbye in 1982. It was a critical and box-office disappointment. Additionally, there was a 1998 Brazilian TV miniseries toplined by Giulia Gam, Edson Celulari, and Marco Nanini.
Set in Salvador in the early 1940s, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands tells the story of a widow (Braga) whose dead husband (Wilker) refuses to leave her side — and her bed — after she marries a kind-hearted but strait-laced pharmacist (Mendonça). As the bohemian, womanizing ghost, Wilker spends much of the film with his clothes off.
At the 1977 Gramado Film Festival, Dona Flor won three awards, including Best Director. Two years later, it was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Additionally, Sonia Braga was a British Film Academy nominee in 1981 in the Most Outstanding Newcomer to Leading Film Roles category.
The new Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is expected to hit Brazilian theaters in 2014.