Paraguay and Argentina Won’t Support Bigelow’s New Film (The New York Times)

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By DAVE ITZKOFF

Becoming the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director? That was the easy part. Getting her next movie made after that? There’s the challenge.

The governments of Paraguay and Argentina said that they would not cooperate with Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director of “The Hurt Locker,” on her next film project, which will explore the border region shared by those two countries and Brazil, Agence France-Presse reported.

The film, tentatively titled “Triple Frontier,” is set in an area common to those countries that is believed to be a haven for smugglers and the financing of terrorists. Officials from Paraguay and Argentina said they were fearful that Ms. Bigelow’s film could damage tourism in the area.

Enrique Meyer, the tourism minister for Argentina, told Agence France-Presse that his country had discussed the project with his counterpart in Paraguay and the governor of Misiones province in Argentina. “We all agreed that we were deeply indignant when we discovered that this project seeks to negatively portray this region shared by three South American countries,” Mr. Meyer said.

Liz Cramer, the tourism minister of Paraguay, told The Associated Press the film could damage the region’s image and have “a negative economic impact.”

Kathryn Bigelow filmará en la Triple Frontera

O sobre la Triple Frontera. Este artículo de "Variety" no lo aclara pero el nuevo filme de la directora (llamado, de hecho, "Triple Frontier") transcurre en la zona limítrofe entre Argentina, Brasil y Paraguay. ¿Se habrá inspirado cuando vino a la Argentina el año pasado?

Paramount is reteaming "The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal on action-adventure "Triple Frontier," with Charles Roven, Alex Gartner and Steve Alexander producing through their Atlas Entertainment banner.

"Triple Frontier" is described as a high-stakes ensemble project. Boal and Bigelow, who will both exec produce, sold the original idea together; the logline is being kept under wraps.

Boal's writing the script, set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Igazu and Parana rivers converge -- making "la triple frontera" difficult to monitor and a haven for organized crime.

"The Hurt Locker" has turned in a solid box office performance since Summit released the Iraq war thriller, grossing $9 million in seven weeks of limited release.

Boal wrote the "Locker" screenplay after spending several weeks embedded with an Army bomb squad, and Bigelow shot the film in Vancouver and Jordan and set it in 2004 Baghdad.

Roven, who produced "The Dark Knight," told Daily Variety he's hoping to begin production on "Triple Frontier" next year. He's in post-production on historical drama "Season of the Witch" and is producing "Warcraft" with Sam Raimi for Warner Bros. and retirement community comedy "Winter's Discontent" with Larry Charles directing for Columbia.

More than one option

• (Co) Daily Variety
  Filmography, Year, Role
• (Co) Daily Variety

Warner Bros. set Jose Padilha last year to direct "A Willing Patriot," a terrorism-themed action thriller also set in the notorious border area.