Elle and The Man I Love Producer Saïd Ben Saïd Collaborates with Director Nathan Silver for U.S. Remake of Cannes Award-Winning Film A Poet
Colombian Film Inspires New American Adaptation
CANNES, France—The award-winning film A Poet, directed by Colombian filmmaker Simon Mesa Soto, is set to inspire a new American adaptation. This project is being developed by Saïd Ben Saïd, producer of Elle, and Nathan Silver, director of Between The Temples, who will also co-write the screenplay alongside Chris Mason Wells.
The English-language version will take place in upstate New York, drawing from the critical acclaim garnered by the original film. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall, with SBS Productions financing the project and SBS International handling worldwide sales. Initial discussions regarding the film will take place during the Cannes Film Festival this week, while casting is currently underway.
Silver’s recent film, Between The Temples, which premiered at Sundance 2024, starred notable actors Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, and was subsequently acquired by Sony Classics.
Ben Saïd, a prominent Tunisian-French producer who secured the rights to remake A Poet, returns to Cannes this year with two films: Ira Sachs’ competition entry The Man I Love, featuring Rami Malek, and Radu Jude’s Diary of a Chambermaid, part of the Directors’ Fortnight.
Mesa Soto’s original A Poet (Una Poeta) is an absurdist dramedy centered on a struggling middle-aged poet whose life takes an unexpected turn when he begins nurturing the creative abilities of a teenage girl.
Reflecting on his journey into filmmaking, Mesa Soto stated, “As one quixotic journey ended there, another began: I would become a filmmaker. And now multiple decades into that so-called career, I can relate all too well to a story of struggling to achieve artistic recognition, financial stability, and finding poetry in everyday life. After watching A Poet, I could immediately picture an American version of the film, transposing this character’s plight to a land that cares even less for poetry than Colombia.”
Co-writer Mason Wells added, “Our idea is to make something new that would still retain the furiously funny, upsetting, and moving spirit of the original. A kind of American cover version — in a new language and sound but with the same infectious melody.”
