The opening and closing ceremonies for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics "will be low-budget productions compared to three years ago in London, or in Beijing in 2008," according to Stephen Wade of the AP. The austerity "reflects the reality of Rio's Olympics, which open in just over 10 months and are caught up in the economic and political upheaval besetting Brazil." Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian filmmaker and part of the creative team, estimated Tuesday that "Rio will spend one-tenth what London did on four major ceremonies." Meirelles said, "I would be ashamed to waste what London spent in a country where we need sanitation; where education needs money. So I'm very glad we're not spending money like crazy." London is reported to have spent about £80M ($104M at '12 exchange rates) "on the four ceremonies." Meirelles, who directed the film "City of God," said that "the budget for the ceremonies had always been tight, although Rio organizers have clearly been cutting in the last year." Rio is spending about R$39B ($10B) in public and private money "to prepare the games" (AP, 9/22). In Rio, Lisa Alves wrote the forecast cost for Rio’s Olympic opening ceremony is now R$9M ($2M), a small fraction of the R$132M ($32M) originally estimated. Meirelles said, "We will have high concept not high tech." Meirelles and two other award-winning directors, Andrucha Waddington and Daniela Thomas, "will be in charge of the opening ceremony, while samba school director, Rosa Magalhaes, will produce the closing ceremony" (RIO TIMES, 9/22).
