Pre-production

After seeing the trailer for 2 Coelhos in his apartment in Alto de Pinheiros in São Paulo, Sandi Adamiu, director of expansion and shareholder of Paris Filmes, called Afonso Poyart, showing his interest in developing a project involving MMA. Poyart bought the idea and said he saw in the history of UFC champion José Aldo all the elements needed: hard life, willpower, struggle for a dream, overcoming. "And he has a deal with his father, which is a remarkable story. He is a hero, but he has a facet of villain at the same time, it's ambiguous," said the director who along with Paris Films, went to the quest to buy the copyright.^[1]

In June 2011, the director and screenwriter, Afonso Poyart, in an interview with Esporte UOL reiterated that his producer Black Maria was in the pre-production of a film based on the trajectory of José Aldo. The plot would be centered on the story of the fighter, "a guy who started down there, went through needs and moved the world," Poyart said.^[2] Afonso Poyart was still involved in works related to the distribution of 2 Coelhos, thus generating a delay in the progress of the production of the cinebiography, whose provisional title at the time was "Vale Tudo - Uma História de Luta".^[3]

The development of the feature film came to various halts, with a stalled period from Poyart due to commitments made in Hollywood cinema in a drama titled Solace starring Anthony Hopkins.^[4] After a period of production recess, it was speculated that production would restart at the end of 2012 under command now of Daniel Filho, with Poyart as executive producer.^[5] In the end, Poyart even with the commitments of Solace, returned as director to the production of the biographical work. Later, Marcelo Rubens Paiva was hired to do a final treatment of the script.^[6]

Filming

With an estimated production budget of R $5 million,^[1] $1 million being an incentive investment from Ancine,^[7] The filming of Mais Forte que o Mundo began at the end of May 2015. The multi-sport center of São José dos Campos, better known as Teatrão, was one of the first filming locations. A ring was set up in the center of the theatrical gymnasium for José Loreto to interpret José Aldo's drills. In addition to the gymnasium, the façade of the São José dos Campos municipal hospital was also a recording point. In the recording, the facade of the hospital became an area of the Aeroporto Internacional de Manaus.^[8]

In July 2015, there was a production stoppage due to a wound of José Loreto when he went to make a mortal leap and ended twisting his ankle. Other scenes were also recorded in São Paulo, São Bernardo do Campo, Santos and Rio de Janeiro. In September 2015, the last scenes were shot in Las Vegas.

Release

Stronger than the World was scheduled to launch on national circuits on January 14, 2016, by the distributors Downtown and Paris Films. However, the directors of the distribution companies took into account a possible failure at the box office due to UFC 194, in which Jose Aldo was defeated by the Irish fighter Conor McGregor. According to journalist Flávio Ricco, from UOL, the distributors wanted to take advantage of the Brazilian's victory to promote the biopic. Thus, the debut was postponed indefinitely,^[9] being finally released on June 16, 2016.^[10]