EXCLUSIVE: Eclipse Pictures has acquired worldwide sales rights to Tropico, a noirish thriller set in Brazil being directed by Giada Colagrande from a screenplay by Barry Gifford. Willem Dafoe, Morena Baccarin and Pedro Pascal will star. Colagrande previously directed Padre and her debut pic Open My Heart played at Venice in 2002.

In Tropico, Willem Dafoe plays Raymond Sanz, a veteran operative hired to spy on Mark, an American businessman (Pascal) in a steamy costal town in Northern Brazil. However, things get more complicated when Sanz falls simultaneously for Mark’s wife, the mysterious and beautiful Lucia (Baccarin), and her equally beautiful identical twin sister, Olivia (Baccarin). “Barry’s atmospheric screenplay is an exotic thriller in the best traditions of the noir genre,” said Colagrande, “and I also couldn’t be more excited to work with such an accomplished group of actors.”

Nathalia Scarton is producing Tropico through her Bidou Pictures Brazil banner, with Jeremy Dawson executive producing. Eclipse’s Daniel Diamond and Benedict Carver will also executive produce. Eclipse will handle worldwide sales on the film, with the exception of Latin America, and CAA and Eclipse will jointly handle the domestic sale.

Production on the film is due to start in the first quarter of 2020 in São Luis Do Maranhão, Northern Brazil.

Gifford’s literary works include the renowned Sailor and Lula trilogy of novels, two of which — Wild At Heart and Perdita Durango — were turned into films, with David Lynch’s adaptation of Wild At Heart winning the Palm D’or at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Gifford subsequently re-teamed with Lynch on the 1997 neo-noir film Lost Highway.

Four time Oscar-nominated Dafoe next appears in the Toronto-bound Robert Eggers-directed thriller The Lighthouse, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the Toronto-bound Edward Norton-directed Motherless Brooklyn, as well as the Dee Rees-directed The Last Thing He Wanted, and Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch.

In addition to her regular roles on the iconic series Homeland and Gotham, Baccarin has two Deadpool blockbusters under her belt and next stars opposite Gerard Butler in Greenland for STX Films and opposite Charlie Hunnam and Mel Gibson in Waldo.

Pascal, coming off the series Game of Thrones and Narcos and the Equalizer 2 film, will next be seen in the Robert Rodriguez-directed We Can Be Heroes, and opposite Gal Gadot in the sequel Wonder Woman 1984. He also stars in the title role of Jon Favreau’s upcoming Star Wars spinoff, The Mandalorian.

Dafoe is repped by CAA and Circle of Confusion, Baccarin by UTA and Seven Summits Pictures & Management, and Pascal by WME and Untitled. I.P.C. International attorney Richard Rapkowski negotiated for Eclipse, and Bazil law firm Murta Goyanes negotiated on behalf of Bidou.

Diamond and Carver’s Eclipse Pictures recent pics are the Helen Mirren-starrer genre hit Winchester, with the Will Ferrell-starrer Fruitcake and thriller Exo upcoming.