Film Music Reporter

Los Angeles Philharmonic musical director Gustavo Dudamel has been tapped to score the Spanish, French and English-language biopic Libertador. The film is directed by Alberto Arvelo (Cyrano Fernandez) and stars Edgar Ramírez as Venezuelan military and political leader Simón Bolívar who was instrumental in Latin America’s struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire. Danny Huston, María Valverde, Imanol Arias and Gary Lewis are co-starring. The movie traces Bolívar’s quests, military campaigns and vision to wrestle independence from Spain and unify South America. Timothy J. Sexton (Children of Men) has written the screenplay for the Spanish-Venezuelan co-production and Winfried Hammacher and Ana Loehnert are producing. The biopic is produced by Madrid’s San Mateo Films and Venezuela’s Producciones Insurgentes in association with Germany’s WMG Films and Silver Screen Inc. The project marks Dudamel’s first film scoring assignment. The Venezuelan conductor and violinist who has been named musical director of the LA Philharmonic in 2009 is also the artistic director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in Caracas and has been the principal conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony in Gothenburg, Sweden for the past five years. Libertador is currently shooting in Spain. A release in 2013 is expected. (Variety)