TLA Releasing Acquires Alberto Fuguet’s ‘Cola De Mono’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By Leo Barraclough

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – TLA Releasing has acquired worldwide rights (excluding Chile) to Alberto Fuguet’s LGBT film “Cola De Mono.”

The Chilean film will have its world premiere at Galway Film Fleadh this month, and Outfest will host the pic’s U.S. premiere, also in July. “Cola De Mono” will be released through in North America and the U.K. later this year. Optimale, a sister company, will be releasing the film in French-language territories. It will be released in Chile early next year.

The film is set on Christmas Eve, 1986. Borja is a precocious teenager with a passion for film. As his extended family comes together to celebrate the holiday, the combined forces of the suffocating Chilean heat, free-flowing drinks, and repressed desire contribute to the eruption of long-held secrets. “This hypnotic story from Chile is both an enticing family melodrama and an explicit erotic thriller about the ways that passion and desire control our lives — from our pop-culture tastes to our sexual fantasies,” according to a statement.

As well as being the writer and director of six movies, including “Se arrienda” (2005), “Locaciones: Buscando a Rusty James” (2013), and “Invierno” (2015), Fuguet is a novelists, having written more than a dozen books, three of them translated into English. The film’s producer is Nicolás Arenas.

“We’re so delighted to have such a deliciously sexy, gorgeous, film on our slate,” Adam Silver, TLA Releasing’s acquisition manager, said. “Alberto Fuguet has crafted a truly memorable and evocative film. ‘Cola De Mono’ is already being called a wild mix of ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Cruising’ in early reviews and we expect audiences all over the world to be similarly impressed as we roll it out throughout late 2018 and in to next year.”

Fuguet said: “I am truly excited to be partnering with TLA Releasing in ensuring my film is seen by the widest possible audience around the world.”