A friendship that blossomed between a fisherman and a rescued penguin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, has gone from social media sensation to touching motion picture in a new release, “My Penguin Friend.”
Debuting in theaters Aug. 16 and scheduled for wider distribution to global audiences soon after, the film features international stars Jean Reno and Adriana Barraza among its cast and Carmel Valley resident Jonathan Lim among its list of producers.
Inspired by true events that went viral in March 2016, “My Penguin Friend” follows the story of a heartbroken fisherman, João Pereira (Reno), who rediscovers happiness from a special bond he creates with a penguin he rescued from a nearby oil spill. Viewers can watch the friendship between Pereira and the Magellanic penguin, “Dindim,” unfold over the years as Dindim travels thousands of miles to return to the one who nursed him back to health.
Whether it was deciding the location of the set or cycling the script through 20 rewrites, Lim said he wanted to capture the true essence of the story. To Lim, the screenplay’s attention to authenticity was an important standard that he held throughout every phase of its production.
“We were initially going to shoot this in the Canary Islands because there was a very attractive tax incentive there and the location was great with a lot of ecosystems on that island. But, unfortunately, we found out that the penguins on the Canary Islands were Humboldt penguins and Dindim is a Magellanic penguin,” Lim said in a Q&A session on Aug. 6 with the Cinema Society of San Diego.
“It’s one stripe that separates the Humboldt from the Magellanic, but to me, the authenticity of the real species of penguin was really important and sitting here in the audience wouldn’t have felt right if I was looking at a Humboldt penguin. So it was back to the drawing board and we decided to pivot and go to where the real penguins were.”
Ten rescue penguins from Ubatuba, Brazil, played the role of Dimdim, with two being taken out of circulation for “falling hopelessly in love” on set, according to Lim. The filmmakers worked with The Movies Animals Protected organization to be mindful about caring for the penguins on and off the set.
Through a combination of handycams and fisheye lenses, “Slumdog Millionaire” cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle created penguin point-of-view shots to allow the audience to experience parts of the film through the eyes of Dindim. Lin shared at the Cinema Society screening at Reading Cinemas Town Square that 80% of the scenes in the movie were filmed with real penguins, while 15% were CGI and 5% used animatronics.
University City resident Micki Papini attended the screening as a guest joining her friends from the Cinema Society of San Diego, which is a membership-based organization dedicated to coordinating local film events since 1984. Personally, she felt a connection to the character Pereira as someone who’s experienced a great loss, and was deeply moved by how the film portrayed his journey toward healing.
“I loved it. My grandson, he passed away recently and he actually worked at SeaWorld with the penguins. He fed them and took care of them, so it touched me,” Papini tearfully said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better movie.”
Lim calls himself a “bio-tech CEO by day and movie producer by night,” balancing his two lifelong passions for science and the arts. He said being a philanthropist continues to drive his chosen career paths — whether it’s fighting against cancer as a CEO of Erasca or “revitalizing people, planet and perspective” through storytelling at City Hill Arts. As a producer, he hopes to highlight ordinary people doing extraordinary things to fill audiences around the world with hope, love and inspiration.
“In this movie, the theme is how love, kindness and friendship have the power to transform this broken family and by extension people take the idea that those values have the power to change the world that we live in,” Lim said. “This is a story centered around that theme of love, kindness and friendship but also stewardship. That we have a responsibility to be wise stewards of this beautiful planet that we live in and also its inhabitants, including each other and the animals that live here.”
‘MY PENGUIN FRIEND’
Rating: PG
When: Opens Aug. 16
Where: Wide release
Running time: 97 minutes
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