Subscribe
Follow Us
Four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke is set to star in the upcoming thriller feature The Last of the Tribe, Variety exclusively reported.
The movie is produced by Academy Award nominee Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles and Oscar-winning producer Ed Saxon. Claudio Borrelli will direct The Last of the Tribe Mark Bailey's script. It's based on former Washington Post journalist Monte Reel's 2010 book The Last of the Tribe: The Epic Quest to Save a Lone Man in the Amazon.
A Hawke in the jungle
The story follows former Chicago police officer William Phelan (Hawke) who now works in corporate security. His latest assignment send him to an unfamiliar territory where he is tasked to kill the last surviving member of an uncontacted native tribe.
The film's logline reads: “A broken man standing at an unlikely crossroads, Phelan is given the chance to save a life and reclaim his soul.”
Joining Hawke is Indigenous Brazilian actress-model Zaya Guarini, who was born in the Amazon's Port Velho. She was in Darren Aronofsky's 2023 documentary Postcard From Earth. Guarini is also an environmental activist, who has uses her platform as a fashion model in order to advocate on behalf of Indigenous peoples.
Meirelles said, “In this week when Southern Brazil is flooded in the worst tragedy the country has ever experienced, Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, plans to explore oil in the Amazon. A film that talks about prioritizing commercial interests over the preservation of the world’s largest forest could not be more urgent.”
The Man of the Hole, the last of his tribe
The movie's producers describe it as “genuinely global and intensely relevant.” They also note the true story of the Tanaru Indian, also known as the Man of the Hole, who lived alone in Brazil's Tanaru Indigenous Territory. He was the last surviving member of his tribe, and chose to remain isolated, after their genocide at the hands of Brazilian settlers in from the '70s to the '90s.
He lived primarily through hunting and gathering in the Amazon forest. The Tanaru Indian moved frequently and left a deep hole, whose purpose is unknown, in each of his former dwellings, which is how he got his nickname.
In 2009, he survived an attack by armed ranchers. However in August 2022, he was found dead in his home.
Meireilles is producing the film through his São Paulo-based banner O2 Filmes. The film is a Brazil-US co-production, with Ethan Hawke serving as producer, along with Ryan Hawke and Mickey Schiff of Under the Influence Productions. Chockstone Pictures' Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz also produce.
The Last of the Tribe has been presented at the Cannes Film Festival's Marché du Film in order to secure partnerships, financiers and distributors.
