one of the prime examples of rio de janeiro's recent rise in cinematic success, is the outgoing director, josé padilha. born in rio, in 1967, josé padilha is one of brazil's most exciting new directors. bursting onto the scene in 2002, with bus 174, padilha has now made his way over to hollywood, after recently being given a budget of us$130 million to direct the new robocop film.

considered by forbes magazine as brazil's most famous person, television personality silvio santos has also become important in local production - born in rio's most bohemian neighborhood, lapa, in 1930, went on to become one of the countries most well known tv presenters, eventually setting up his production network, encompassed in the self named, silvio santos group. due to his meteoritic rise to prominence, and his entrepreneurial knack, silvio was at one point worth an estimated six billion dollars.