Salada, Querosene set 'High Five'

BUENOS AIRES -- Mariana Secco's Montevideo-based Salado Media is joining with Brazil's Querosene Filmes to produce Manuel Facal's feature debut, "High Five." The Uruguayan movie underscores two building trends in Latin America: producers' growing concern to beat local audiences as well as the emergence from the new generation of filmmakers who view their films as mainly entertainment, not social-problem photos. "Five" triggers a stoner who stumbles around the stash of marijuana, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and ketamine. He assembles four pals and each takes one drug. "High Five" recounts whatever they remember as happening afterwards. Shooting next summer season, "Five," which won Uruguay's primary Fona subsidy award, is "a good work out in screwball comedy, a format usually connected with light comedies, modified to more effective content," Facal mentioned. Its cinematographer, Pedro Luque, and production designer, Federico Capra, both done Uruguayan Gustavo Hernandez's micro-budget horror hit "The Quiet House," which sparked a U.S. remake and worldwide sales. Occur a Montevideo divided by class and wealth, "Five" "charts the extended and confusing transition from adolescence to the adult years,Inch mentioned Secco, who referred to as "Five" " 'Scott Pilgrim' meets 'Dazed and Confused,'" She added, "What's interesting is to experience a new-generation director who not desire to vary from festival to festival but desires to make movies like the U.S. buddy comedies he was elevated on." Querosene topper Joao Queiroz is at talks for theatrical distribution in South usa. Given "Five's" 18-30 demo, Secco mentioned the producers are exploring straight-to-TV for a lot of areas and Internet VOD distribution. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com