‘The Platform’ Producer David Matamoros Boards ‘Dog Legs’

David Matamoros, the Spanish producer whose credits include “The Platform,” has boarded Matías Rojas’s adaptation of the Chilean cult novel “Dog Legs” (“Patas de perro”), in one of the later deals closed at this year’s San Sebastian Festival.

The Doce Entertainment producer joins four partners from Chile, France, Germany and Colombia. The project now enters the final phase of its financing, with a shoot planned in Valdivia, Chile, during the second half of next year. Alfredo Castro — the veteran Chilean actor known for Pablo Larraín’s “The Count” and “The Club” — is attached to star.

“Spain’s involvement decisively strengthens the project and puts us in a very strong position to complete its financing,” Federico Durán told Variety. Durán produces through his new Colombian company El Sol Ermitaño; his previous credits include “The Squad” and “Alias María,” and he has just won a major post-production award at San Sebastián for his work-in-progress project “Lovers Go Home!”

“’Dog Legs’ is an ambitious project, both technically and artistically, but it also aims to reach a broad audience,” Durán said.

Matamoros produced “The Platform” and “The Virgin of the Quarry,” and previously worked at Zentropa Spain, the company founded by Lars von Trier.

The producing partners bring long histories with the project. Chile’s A Simple Vista, led by Tomás Gerlach, began developing “Dog Legs” roughly four years ago. Reality Films, the production arm of French distributor Epicentre Films — which handles Colombia’s Cannes-winning “A Poet,” the country’s submission to the 98th Academy Awards international feature category — came on board at the 76th Berlinale this year. Germany’s Klinker Films, a co-producer of Rojas’ previous film “A Place Called Dignity,” completes the European contingent.

Visual effects will be handled by the French company MPC, whose credits include Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” winner of Best VFX at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival and at the French César Awards.

Rojas’s relationship with San Sebastian runs long. He premiered his debut feature, “Root,” at the festival 13 years ago, and later returned to its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum with “A Place Called Dignity.” His films and projects have also screened at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, the Berlinale and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).

Published in 1965, “Dog Legs” remains a landmark of Chilean literature — radical, powerful and still deeply unsettling. Its themes of exclusion, abuse and violence retain their force six decades on. The story follows Bobi, a 12-year-old boy born with literal dog’s paws, hidden away by his family until Carlos, a lonely, childless man, takes him in. That act of compassion turns the town against them, casting Carlos as a madman and Bobi as a monster, and setting both on a devastating path toward violence.

With financing nearly closed, five producing countries behind it, a major VFX house attached and Castro set to lead the cast, “Dog Legs” now has a clear runway to cameras in Valdivia next year.