Rodrigo Teixeira Talks 20 Years Of RT Features; Middle East Foray With ‘Wolves’ & Verdict On James Gray’s ‘Paper Tiger’: “It’s His Best Film Yet” – Marrakech

Rodrigo Teixeira touches down at the Marrakech Film Festival this weekend to show first footage of Lebanese bank heist drama Wolves by filmmaking duo Rami Kodeih and Nora Mariana in its Atlas Workshops project event.

Set against the backdrop of the real-life collapse of Lebanon’s banking system in 2019, the triller marks Teixeira’s first foray into the Middle East and it is unlikely to be his last.

The Brazilian Oscar-nominated I’m Still Here producer spent the previous weekend in Qatar as a guest of the inaugural Doha Film Festival’s high-profile Industry Days event.

Teixeira was one of the speakers at the event at which the Gulf state’s Film Committee unveiled a new 50% film rebate and partnerships with Neon, Sony, Miramax, Department M and Company 3.

“It was a good invitation and at the right moment for me. It’s a place I’ve never been to. I like to explore and see what’s happening. It’s a been a great three days. They’re eager to do make things happen and hopefully something will come out of this trip,” the producer tells Deadline on the fringes of the meeting in Doha’s Rosewood hotel.

These Middle East trips come at a time when the producer  – whose São Paulo-based  company RT Features marks its 20th anniversary in January 2026 – is increasingly moving beyond his early stomping grounds of  Brazil and the U.S.

“The future is international. That’s why I’m travelling so much,” he says.  “At least 70% of the best movies are not English speaking. The market is shifting. The best movies are foreign movies.”

He points to Norwegian and Brazilian 2026 Oscar contenders Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent as current textbook examples of films with appeal for home audiences, A-list festivals, international cinemas as well as awards potential.

“It’s a beautiful film,” he says of Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.  “It talks about universal issues, father and daughter relationships and has clever casting with Elle Fanning in role for a little bit of English.”

He suggests burgeoning markets like Brazil are also shifting the dial as its social media-engaged population gets behind their stars, which in turn amplifies their profile on the world stage.

“When Wagner Maura does something, it gets 700,000 likes on social media. It was the same last year with Fernanda Torres,” he says, referring to Brazilian actress whose international star rose last year with her lead performance in I’m Still Here.

Teixeira recalls how his driving ambition when he started out as producer in the early 2000s, was to break into the U.S. cinema scene.

“My dream was to make American films, English speaking movies,” he says, adding that he had no family connections with the U.S. and terrible English at the time. “I wasn’t capable of having telephone conversation.”

Undeterred, he achieved this dream, breaking into the market with Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha starring Greta Gerwig in 2012, with other early U.S. credits including Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves (2013), Ira Sach’s Love is Strange (2014), and Robert Eggers’ first feature The Witch (2015) which he scouted at Sundance.

“I say this without ego but I’m a good finder of projects. I know how to find projects, how to put people in projects and how to package projects. That’s my talent,” says Teixeira. “You also need to take risks in cinema and I’m a risk taker. I know how to do that.”

He cites his work on Frances Ha as an example. “I financed a loan. Noah was coming for Greenberg which was not a successful film and Greta was not a big name. Now Greta is probably one of the biggest directors in the world and Noah too.”

He also alludes to his connection to the casting of contemporary big stars in their early roles, such as Adam Driver in Frances HaAnya Taylor-Joy in The Witch and Timothy Chalamet in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name.

Films & Books

“We’ve had 20 strong years, with good and bad, and now, this is the first time that I’m not only looking for American films. They are part of what I do, but not my first goal,” he says. “What remains the same is that my company is a director driven company.”

With more than 65 features under his belt, against just three TV shows, Teixeira says his first love remains cinema, alongside books.

“They are my primary love. I don’t have a publishing company, I have a production company, but I use books to feed my production company and even if now we’re also doing originals,’ explains the producer.

His passion for books is evident in his current slate featuring adaptations Glaxo by Argentinian and French director Benjamín Naishtat; Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor’s The Bitchand Mexican filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera’s Ornament.

Recent originals have included Continental ’25 and Dracula by Romanian director Radu Jude, who Teixeira first met when served on Locarno’s 2016 International Competition jury, which awarded the director the Special Jury Prize for Scarred Hearts.

“I sent a book, but it wasn’t for him… then he sent me two scripts and I told him, ‘I’m in’. He’s a very gifted person.  His capacity to understand the moment we are living right now is incredible.”

Teixeira’s involvement  in Wolves came about through Kodeih and Mariana’s manager Jeff Okin at Anonymous Content.

Set in Beirut during Lebanon’s real-life 2019 economic collapse, the movie revolves around a young woman who is unable to withdraw her life’s savings, which she needs to pay for her sister’s uterus cancer surgery.

They recruit a truck driver and an ex-militia fighter for a daring plan to take what is rightfully theirs from the corrupt banking system, in a mission forcing them to confront the true cost of survival, justice, and sisterhood in a city on the brink of collapse.

“He [Jeff Okin] sent me the script. I read it and thought this could happen in Brazil and I bought it to do a Brazilian movie,” recounts Teixeira.

Okin in turn asked Teixeira to talk to Kodeih and Mariana, suggesting the story would work better as a U.S.-set movie. They in turn begged Teixeira to let them set and shoot the film in Lebanon as had been their original intention.

“They convinced me,” says the producer.

The film began shooting in late end-May 2025, with Teixeira travelling to Lebanon from this year’s Cannes Film Festival. An attempt to shoot the film in 2024 had been abandoned following a flare-up in the conflict between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.

“It was impossible because of the war,” says Teixeira, who says the eventual shoot ended up running smoothly. “It was like 57 days of shooting in Beirut and Tripoli. We wrapped at the end of July, the director asked for 20 weeks of editing which comes to an end soon, and we’ll have some scenes to show at the Atlas workshops.”

Teixeira is aiming for a big European premiere and hopes to connect with festivals and potential distribution partners at Marrakech.

James Gray’s Paper Tiger

Other productions nearing completion include James Gray’s crime drama Paper Tiger with Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller. It marks Teixeira’s third collaboration with Gray after Armageddon Time and Ad Astra.

“We’re in post right now. In my opinion, it’s the best James Gray movie ever. I’ve made three James Gray movies, and this is for sure the best, I guarantee you,” says Teixeira. “Although it was a difficult film to produce, working on this film was a pleasure. James was in great shape and the actors were good too.”

Sales agent The Veterans shared a teaser for the movie at the AFM, with Teixeira and his collaborators on the production aiming for a big A-list festival debut.

Other productions slated for a 2026 launch include Glaxo a The Bitch, which both recently wrapped and are in post.

Gabe Klinger’s drama Isabelabout a sommelier who decides to break-away from a domineering boss to set up her own wine bar, is completed as is Gustavo Vinagre and Gurcius Gewdner’s horror picture Flushing about a killer toilet, which has set an as yet unannounced festival premiere.

Adapted from Hernan Ronsino’s 2017 novel, Glaxo is set in a down-at-heel Argentinian Pampas town and revolves around four childhood friends who paths diverge in adulthood with a deadly outcome.

Billed as a tale of betrayal, passion and revenge, it features popstar lanta ngalongside Esteban Lamothe and Marcelo Subiotto in the cast.

Getting over Glaxo over the line amid the film funding cuts of populist Argentinian President Javier Milei, was no easy feat says Teixeira.

“It was hard, but we’re fully financed. We made the film in two small cities in the south of Brazil that look like Argentina… it was easier as it’s crazy moment there. It’s a powerful film and will be a talking point next year,” says Teixeira.

The Bitch stars I’m Still Here actor Selton Mello alongside Manuela Oyarzún (The Good Life), David Gaete (Purchase), and Giannina Fruttero (The Espookys).

Based on a based on a novel by Colombian writer Pilar Quintana, it revolves around a woman living on a remote Chilean island who develops a deep bond with an abandoned puppy as she grapples with a painful past. RT is producing with Chilean production house Planta.

Ornament is adapted from the 2020 novel ‘Ornamental’ by Colombian writer Juan Cárdenas, and revolves around a scientist whose trials of a revolutionary recreational drug that works only on women takes an unexpected turn.

It marks a third feature for Garza Cervera, one of Mexico’s buzziest rising talents who broke out with feminist horror Huesera: The Bone Woman and has since directed The Hand That Rocks the Cradle reboot for Hulu and Disney+.

“We’re closing casting,” says Teixeira

Other projects in the works include Brazilian director Fernando Nogari’s Queens of the Night. Described by Teixeira as a transvestite world gangland tale in the vein of Goodfellasthe film will shoot towards the end of the year.

Teixeira says the past 12 months since late 2024 have been a joyous period for him as a producer even if the profession remains tough.

“I’ve been very happy doing films this past year… We have five films ready festivals and other big projects coming down the road. 2026 will be a busy year for RT.”