His work in the "Narcos" series had already cemented his popularity, and with his Oscar nomination for "The Secret Agent", Wagner Moura has moved up a notch in terms of his market value. One of the most reliable actors around, Moura has now taken over a role that was originally attached to Oscar Isaac.
Moura will share the screen with Kristen Stewart in a vampire thriller titled "Flesh of the Gods", from director Panos Cosmatos ("Mandy", "Beyond the Black Rainbow"). The project is set in the 80s, according to a report in Deadline.
Now, anyone familiar with Cosmatos' filmmaking style would know that his films all bear the visual hallmarks of old-school thrillers, with a strong sense of atmosphere that evokes the movies made from a much older time. "Flesh of the Gods" could be either traversing the same territory as Tony Scott's 1983 vampire flick "Hunger" or Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 "Near Dark" — both visually robust, benchmark-setting examples in the genre. The official synopsis from Deadline seems to gravitate more towards the former than the latter.
Here's how it goes: "'Flesh of the Gods' follows Raoul (Moura) and Alex (Stewart), a married couple in glittering ’80s Los Angeles who descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an electric nighttime realm. When they cross paths with the mysterious and enigmatic Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, Raoul and Alex are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills and violence.”
Moura made history with The Secret Agent by becoming the first Brazilian nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as the first Brazilian to win a Golden Globe for acting and Cannes’ prize for Best Actor. Released in the U.S. by Neon, the film from Kleber Mendonça Filho had him playing Marcelo, a technology expert who becomes entangled in a high-stakes political conspiracy amid the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.
Aside from this project, Moura will be seen next in "11817", which comes from Louis Leterrier’s ("The Transporter", "Fast X") for Netflix, co-starring Greta Lee. He also has "The Last Day", with Alicia Vikander ("Ex Machina", "Tomb Raider"). Kristen Stewart recently made her directorial debut with the critically acclaimed "A Chronology of Water".
