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The Man Who Stole Portugal’ Begins Production With James Nelson Joyce Leading

Beta Cinema will shop the dark comedy heist to international buyers at the Cannes market.

Overview

  • Principal photography has begun on the feature directed by Thomas Napper from a script by Richard Galazka, inspired by Murray Teigh Bloom’s true-crime book.
  • James Nelson Joyce plays Alves Reis, with Emily Fairn as his wife Maria and a supporting cast that includes Richard E. Grant and Dominic West.
  • The shoot spans the U.K., Portugal and South Africa to mirror the story’s path from 1920s Lisbon to colonial Angola and London’s elite printing houses.
  • EMU Films produces, Moviedrome finances under executive producer Terry Smith, and Beta Cinema handles world sales with a launch planned at the Cannes market.
  • The film adapts the real 1920s banknote fraud in which forged contracts unlocked the printing of money, a scheme cited as both outrageous and resonant with modern questions about access to power.