Blue belt Wagner Moura (protagonist Captain Nascimento in movie) choked out a cast member during the shoot. Photo: Ana Hissa.
This weekend’s copy of Veja-Rio, a weekly magazine in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, featured as a cover story one of the three most eagerly awaited movies in Brazilian cinema in 2010. As GRACIEMAG.com readers already know, Elite Squad 2, by hard-nosed director José Padilha, had the help of Rickson Gracie as consultant in several scenes.
What Veja revealed to its readers this Saturday was that Jiu-Jitsu will have an important role in one of the most successful movies in Brazilian cinema, a success with the public and critics and winner of the Berlin’s Golden Bear.
The article reported the following:
“In the movie, Coronel Nascimento and his son Rafael, played by young Pedro Van Held, are at odds with each other most of the time. The family tension, which in the first film was concentrated on misunderstandings with his wife, in the sequel is transferred to this other relationship. The only peaceful moments between the two play out on the mat, when the characters practice Jiu-Jitsu. To make the scenes, both were oriented by specialist Rickson Gracie, one of the biggest names of the sport in the world. The professional consulting didn’t keep there from being incident during recording, however. In one of the training sessions, Van Held, already tired, was caught in a hold by Moura and simply passed out. Fortunately, nothing critical happened.”
Elite Squad 2 premiers in Brazil on October 8.