Spain’s film & TV giant The Mediapro Studio is joining forces with Catalan pubcaster 3Cat and its online platform to co-produce “El Mal” (“Quiet”), a thriller series based on a true story, on a serial killer prowling the streets of locked-down Barcelona in March-April 2020.
Presented April 8 at MipTV, the eight-part series will topline two Goya Awards-winning actor David Verdaguer and double Goya nominee actress Ángela Cervantes.
The series is set to premiere initially on 3Cat while The Mediapro Studio Distribution owns the worldwide commercial rights.
Created and lead written by Lluís Alcarazo – creator of Oriol Paulo’s crime thriller “Night and Day” and doc feature “Special Case “Quiet” – tells the story of an investigation to uncover the identity of a serial killer who chooses their victims from among the most vulnerable members of the society: the homeless.
The plot unfolds at the end of April 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Presented April 8 at MipTV, the eight-part series will topline two Goya Awards-winning actor David Verdaguer and double Goya nominee actress Ángela Cervantes.
The series is set to premiere initially on 3Cat while The Mediapro Studio Distribution owns the worldwide commercial rights.
Created and lead written by Lluís Alcarazo – creator of Oriol Paulo’s crime thriller “Night and Day” and doc feature “Special Case “Quiet” – tells the story of an investigation to uncover the identity of a serial killer who chooses their victims from among the most vulnerable members of the society: the homeless.
The plot unfolds at the end of April 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.
- 4/8/2024
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
The film is a remake of a 2016 Spanish mystery thriller.
Chinese streamer iQiyi is to commence sales on a Chinese remake of mystery thriller The Invisible Guest and crime action film Suspect, starring Nick Cheung, at the Cannes market next week.
The Invisible Guest is directed by Chen Zhuo and stars Greg Hsu from recent time-travel romance hit Someday Or One Day alongside Janine Chang (The Soul) and Yin Zheng (Post Truth). It follows a woman who must work with a police officer to clear her name after her lover is found dead in a locked room.
The Spanish original,...
Chinese streamer iQiyi is to commence sales on a Chinese remake of mystery thriller The Invisible Guest and crime action film Suspect, starring Nick Cheung, at the Cannes market next week.
The Invisible Guest is directed by Chen Zhuo and stars Greg Hsu from recent time-travel romance hit Someday Or One Day alongside Janine Chang (The Soul) and Yin Zheng (Post Truth). It follows a woman who must work with a police officer to clear her name after her lover is found dead in a locked room.
The Spanish original,...
- 5/11/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Internationally sourced programming and stories placed alongside local content could be a solution to bring audiences back to Indian cinemas, a high-powered panel debated.
The panel was part of Indiantelevision.com’s annual industry event, The Content Hub, that recently concluded in Mumbai. Mayank Shroff, head of film distribution at Cinepolis, the Indian division of Latin American exhibition giant Cinepolis, said that while footfalls were back to 85% of pre-pandemic days, an innovative approach is required to bring the rest of the audiences back.
Shroff pointed to the success of Makoto Shinkai’s anime film “Suzume,” which accounted for 20% of the Cinepolis box office over the past weekend and “Evil Dead Rise,” which also pulled in decent numbers, both in the face of stiff competition from Eid holiday release “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan,” starring superstar Salman Khan. Shroff also said that there was demand for Korean films and K-pop concerts,...
The panel was part of Indiantelevision.com’s annual industry event, The Content Hub, that recently concluded in Mumbai. Mayank Shroff, head of film distribution at Cinepolis, the Indian division of Latin American exhibition giant Cinepolis, said that while footfalls were back to 85% of pre-pandemic days, an innovative approach is required to bring the rest of the audiences back.
Shroff pointed to the success of Makoto Shinkai’s anime film “Suzume,” which accounted for 20% of the Cinepolis box office over the past weekend and “Evil Dead Rise,” which also pulled in decent numbers, both in the face of stiff competition from Eid holiday release “Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan,” starring superstar Salman Khan. Shroff also said that there was demand for Korean films and K-pop concerts,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Mario Casas, one of Spain’s biggest film and TV stars, and Goya Award winner actress Anna Castillo, will headline “Escape,” the new film by writer-director Rodrigo Cortés.
Produced by Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, “Escape” is a free adaptation of same-title novel penned by Spanish author Enrique Rubio.
Nostromo announced the new film project after completing an intense 2022, in which the company lensed seven films and released two more titles – Marçal Forés’ “Through My Window” and Oriol Paulo’s “God’s Crooked Lines” – both achieving a standout global reach.
“Escape’s” story turns on N., a young man who wants to live in prison and will do whatever it takes to get there, raising questions such as if those who care about him will get to stop him from committing increasingly serious crimes and how far will the judge go to not grant him his proposal.
Produced by Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, “Escape” is a free adaptation of same-title novel penned by Spanish author Enrique Rubio.
Nostromo announced the new film project after completing an intense 2022, in which the company lensed seven films and released two more titles – Marçal Forés’ “Through My Window” and Oriol Paulo’s “God’s Crooked Lines” – both achieving a standout global reach.
“Escape’s” story turns on N., a young man who wants to live in prison and will do whatever it takes to get there, raising questions such as if those who care about him will get to stop him from committing increasingly serious crimes and how far will the judge go to not grant him his proposal.
- 1/25/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
In line with most other major markets in continental Europe, boosted by a standout bow for “Avatar: The Way of Water” Spain’s 2022 box office surged 49 over 2021 to €379 million (405.5 million by current exchange rates), Comcast Spain announced Friday. Total admission came in at 61.2 million.
Results, however, despite an upbeat year for Spanish movies, are still sizeably down, by 39, on Spain’s average pre-pandemic 2015-19 total box office of €596 million (637.7 million), Comcast estimates.
In comparison, in 2022, the U.K. was still 28 down compared to the 2015-19 average box office, France was 32 off, Germany 34 and Italy a whopping 54 down, according to Comcast calculations.
Bowing Dec. 16 in Spain, Disney’s “Avatar” has roared to €21.86 million (23.40 million) and 3.2 million admissions through Dec. 29, overhauling Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (22.23 million) and “Jurassic World: Dominion” (19.43 million).
Spain’s “Father There is Only One” 3, co-written, directed and starring Santiago Segura, ranked No. 4 (16.70 million). Having also...
Results, however, despite an upbeat year for Spanish movies, are still sizeably down, by 39, on Spain’s average pre-pandemic 2015-19 total box office of €596 million (637.7 million), Comcast estimates.
In comparison, in 2022, the U.K. was still 28 down compared to the 2015-19 average box office, France was 32 off, Germany 34 and Italy a whopping 54 down, according to Comcast calculations.
Bowing Dec. 16 in Spain, Disney’s “Avatar” has roared to €21.86 million (23.40 million) and 3.2 million admissions through Dec. 29, overhauling Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (22.23 million) and “Jurassic World: Dominion” (19.43 million).
Spain’s “Father There is Only One” 3, co-written, directed and starring Santiago Segura, ranked No. 4 (16.70 million). Having also...
- 12/30/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Indonesian action comedy The Big 4, directed by Timo Tjahjanto, has entered Netflix’s Global Non-English Film chart at number two for the week December 12-18 with 16.4 million hours viewed.
The Netflix Original has also entered the Top 10 Country Film list in 53 countries, including Indonesia where it is the number one film. Spanish drama God’s Crooked Lines, directed by Oriol Paulo, is currently the number one global non-English film in its second week of release.
“What a great honor to have my work recognized across the globe, a particularly Indonesian story that’s close to my heart,” said Tjahjanto. “It is thrilling to witness how the story can resonate and travel the world, which is made possible by Netflix.”
The Big 4 revolves around a by-the-book female detective who investigates the death of her father and follows a clue to a remote tropical island, only to find out his true...
The Netflix Original has also entered the Top 10 Country Film list in 53 countries, including Indonesia where it is the number one film. Spanish drama God’s Crooked Lines, directed by Oriol Paulo, is currently the number one global non-English film in its second week of release.
“What a great honor to have my work recognized across the globe, a particularly Indonesian story that’s close to my heart,” said Tjahjanto. “It is thrilling to witness how the story can resonate and travel the world, which is made possible by Netflix.”
The Big 4 revolves around a by-the-book female detective who investigates the death of her father and follows a clue to a remote tropical island, only to find out his true...
- 12/21/2022
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ’The Beasts’ has 17 nominations.
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts leads the nominees for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, with 17, followed closely by Alberto Rodríguez’s Prison 77 on 16.
The Beasts, which had its world premiere at Cannes, centres around a French couple who cause tensions in the local village to which they move. The psychological thriller is nominated in all major categories including best film where it lines up with Prison 77, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Lullaby, Pilar Palomero’s La Maternal and Carla Simón’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs.
Scroll down for the full nominations
Alcarràs is...
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts leads the nominees for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, with 17, followed closely by Alberto Rodríguez’s Prison 77 on 16.
The Beasts, which had its world premiere at Cannes, centres around a French couple who cause tensions in the local village to which they move. The psychological thriller is nominated in all major categories including best film where it lines up with Prison 77, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Lullaby, Pilar Palomero’s La Maternal and Carla Simón’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs.
Scroll down for the full nominations
Alcarràs is...
- 12/1/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Dobaaraa
Starring Taapsee Pannu, Pavail Gulati, Rahul Bhat
Directed by Anurag Kashyap
Time travel has always been tricky on screen. It has never looked more tangled and confounding than Dobaaraa, a time-travel saga trapped in transit, and so frozen in its own inner conflicts that one feels all travel should be banned indefinitely.
Taapsee Pannu wakes up one morning looking suitable bewildered. We know the feeling. It’s the confusion we felt after watching Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet. The puzzle piles up quicker than rubble at a construction site. It is up to us to pick our way through the stockpile of confusions.
Essentially the plot is a mindboggler. There is a 12-year old boy from the 1990s who connects with Taapsee Pannu twenty years later through an old television set. Their bonding is a mix of déjà vu and dejaa-more-confusion.
In this way Doordarshan meets time travel in...
Starring Taapsee Pannu, Pavail Gulati, Rahul Bhat
Directed by Anurag Kashyap
Time travel has always been tricky on screen. It has never looked more tangled and confounding than Dobaaraa, a time-travel saga trapped in transit, and so frozen in its own inner conflicts that one feels all travel should be banned indefinitely.
Taapsee Pannu wakes up one morning looking suitable bewildered. We know the feeling. It’s the confusion we felt after watching Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet. The puzzle piles up quicker than rubble at a construction site. It is up to us to pick our way through the stockpile of confusions.
Essentially the plot is a mindboggler. There is a 12-year old boy from the 1990s who connects with Taapsee Pannu twenty years later through an old television set. Their bonding is a mix of déjà vu and dejaa-more-confusion.
In this way Doordarshan meets time travel in...
- 8/20/2022
- by Subhash K Jha
- Bollyspice
Who doesn’t like a good murder mystery, especially one that keeps you on the edge of your seat guessing who the killer is until the credits roll? Based on the 2017 Spanish film The Invisible Guest directed by Oriol Paulo but with a revamped ending, writer/director Yoon Jong-seok’s South Korean thriller Confession had its Canadian Premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Confession masterfully tells the story of a man suspected of murder through a series of mind-bending flashbacks leading to a transcendent final act.
Confession stars So Ji-sub as Yoo Min-ho, a man suspected of killing his mistress Kim Se-hee, played by Jin-Ah Im. Yoo claims he’s innocent, but he appears to be guilty after he was found in a locked hotel room with his dead lover. When he is released on bail, he goes to a remote retreat to meet with his new attorney,...
Confession stars So Ji-sub as Yoo Min-ho, a man suspected of killing his mistress Kim Se-hee, played by Jin-Ah Im. Yoo claims he’s innocent, but he appears to be guilty after he was found in a locked hotel room with his dead lover. When he is released on bail, he goes to a remote retreat to meet with his new attorney,...
- 7/31/2022
- by Michelle Swope
- DailyDead
Further titles include Mikel Gurrea’s ‘Suro’, Pilar Palomero’s ‘La Maternal’ and TV series ‘Offworld’.
A total of 18 Spanish productions have been selected for the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 16-24, including Fernando Franco’s The Rite Of Spring (La Consagración De La Primavera).
This is Franco’s third feature, following the Silver Shell for best actress received by Marian Álvarez for 2013’s The Wound (La Herida) and special screening title Dying (Morir) in 2017.
The Rite Of Spring (La Consagración De La Primavera) follows the meeting between an 18-year-old girl, played by Valèria Sorolla, and a young boy with cerebral palsy,...
A total of 18 Spanish productions have been selected for the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival, running from September 16-24, including Fernando Franco’s The Rite Of Spring (La Consagración De La Primavera).
This is Franco’s third feature, following the Silver Shell for best actress received by Marian Álvarez for 2013’s The Wound (La Herida) and special screening title Dying (Morir) in 2017.
The Rite Of Spring (La Consagración De La Primavera) follows the meeting between an 18-year-old girl, played by Valèria Sorolla, and a young boy with cerebral palsy,...
- 7/15/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Moving waves on Spain’s film-tv scene when it launched in early May, Beta Fiction Spain has unveiled its first project as a producer, “Dolores,” a portrait of Spain’s Dolores Ibarruri, a worldwide icon of the workers’ movement and struggle against fascism.
The feature film is inspired by “Pasionaria. La vida inesperada de Dolores Ibárruri,” a question-posing non-fiction book by Spanish historian Diego Díaz Alonso published in 2020.
Underscoring Beta Fiction Spain’s ability to attach best-of-class Spanish talent, the screenplay for “Pasionaria” is being penned by two of Spain’s foremost film-tv scribes, Alejandro Hernández, co-writer of Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and Mariano Barroso’s “What the Future Holds,” and Michel Gaztambide, a writer on Julio Medem’s milestone 1992 debut “Cows,” Enrique Urbizu’s best picture Goya winner “No Rest for the Wicked” and Freddy Highmore heist thriller “The Vault,” the second highest-grossing Spanish movie of 2021.
Díaz Alonso...
The feature film is inspired by “Pasionaria. La vida inesperada de Dolores Ibárruri,” a question-posing non-fiction book by Spanish historian Diego Díaz Alonso published in 2020.
Underscoring Beta Fiction Spain’s ability to attach best-of-class Spanish talent, the screenplay for “Pasionaria” is being penned by two of Spain’s foremost film-tv scribes, Alejandro Hernández, co-writer of Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and Mariano Barroso’s “What the Future Holds,” and Michel Gaztambide, a writer on Julio Medem’s milestone 1992 debut “Cows,” Enrique Urbizu’s best picture Goya winner “No Rest for the Wicked” and Freddy Highmore heist thriller “The Vault,” the second highest-grossing Spanish movie of 2021.
Díaz Alonso...
- 6/27/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
“Alcarràs,” from Catalonia’s Carla Simón, won Berlin’s top Golden Bear in February. “One Year, One Night,” from Catalan Isaki Lacuesta, also played in main competition. This May “Pacifiction,” from Albert Serra, another Catalan, has scored a competition berth at Cannes.
Thanks to these three titles, Catalonia has more directors this year in the key section at Europe’s two biggest festivals than Italy (2), Germany (1) or the U.K. (none at all). Other Catalan productions to play at Cannes: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” in Premiere and Anna Fernández’s “I Didn’t Make It to Love Her,” a Critics’ Week short.
If big fest selection is any measure, with just 7.6 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia is building as an upscale European movie powerhouse.
The build, however, is far broader based. In the pipeline, all from Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, are major Netflix titles such as David...
Thanks to these three titles, Catalonia has more directors this year in the key section at Europe’s two biggest festivals than Italy (2), Germany (1) or the U.K. (none at all). Other Catalan productions to play at Cannes: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” in Premiere and Anna Fernández’s “I Didn’t Make It to Love Her,” a Critics’ Week short.
If big fest selection is any measure, with just 7.6 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia is building as an upscale European movie powerhouse.
The build, however, is far broader based. In the pipeline, all from Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, are major Netflix titles such as David...
- 5/18/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
From Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarrás’ to Cannes Competition title ‘Pacifiction,’ these projects will represent Catalonia at Cannes.
Alcarràs
Director: Carla Simón
The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, a family farm drama marking the flagship title for Catalonia’s newest generation of cineastes.
Sales: MK2 Films
Amazing Elisa
Director: Sadrac González-Perellón
The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González- Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, seeks revenge after her mother’s tragic death. La Charito Films produces.
Sales: Filmax
The Beasts
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, selected for Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte.
Sales: Latido Films
The Communion Girl
Director: Víctor García
Film Factory’s genre play for Cannes: A revenge thriller drawing on an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress.
Sales: Film...
Alcarràs
Director: Carla Simón
The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, a family farm drama marking the flagship title for Catalonia’s newest generation of cineastes.
Sales: MK2 Films
Amazing Elisa
Director: Sadrac González-Perellón
The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González- Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, seeks revenge after her mother’s tragic death. La Charito Films produces.
Sales: Filmax
The Beasts
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, selected for Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte.
Sales: Latido Films
The Communion Girl
Director: Víctor García
Film Factory’s genre play for Cannes: A revenge thriller drawing on an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress.
Sales: Film...
- 5/18/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Anurag Kashyap’s “Dobaaraa” has been set as the opening night film of the London Indian Film Festival. Despite its name, the festival will play at venues across the U.K., and will present 24 features and 18 shorts.
“Dobaaraa” is a supernatural thriller that Liff describes as involving a young woman trapped between two lives in different decades. Kashyap has previously told Variety that “Dobaaraa” is a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.” It stars Taapsee Pannu, an actor known for her eclectic choice of projects.
In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.
“Dobaaraa” was produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ektaa R Kapoor, through Cult Movies, a new...
“Dobaaraa” is a supernatural thriller that Liff describes as involving a young woman trapped between two lives in different decades. Kashyap has previously told Variety that “Dobaaraa” is a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.” It stars Taapsee Pannu, an actor known for her eclectic choice of projects.
In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.
“Dobaaraa” was produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ektaa R Kapoor, through Cult Movies, a new...
- 5/10/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
With “Confession” South Korean director Yoon Jong-seok presents his second thriller after “Marine Boy” (2009). It is a remake of “Contratiempo” Spain’s mystery thriller master Oriol Paulo. After an Italian and an Indian version of the story, Yoon now presents his own interpretation. This suspenseful and smartly constructed film was a worthy closing for the Udine Far East Film Festival.
“Confession” screened at Udine Far East Film Festival
Yoo Min-ho (So Ji-sub) wakes up in a hotel room. His mistress lies on the floor, dead. Since the room was closed from the inside and there is no trace of an intruder, the police is sure that Yoo is the murderer. But he claims his innocence. Thanks to his wealthy family in law, he can put some strings and gets out of prison until it comes to trial. Together with a famous attorney, Yang Shin-ae, Yoo wants to proof he’s not the culprit.
“Confession” screened at Udine Far East Film Festival
Yoo Min-ho (So Ji-sub) wakes up in a hotel room. His mistress lies on the floor, dead. Since the room was closed from the inside and there is no trace of an intruder, the police is sure that Yoo is the murderer. But he claims his innocence. Thanks to his wealthy family in law, he can put some strings and gets out of prison until it comes to trial. Together with a famous attorney, Yang Shin-ae, Yoo wants to proof he’s not the culprit.
- 5/2/2022
- by Teresa Vena
- AsianMoviePulse
Spanish director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, who swept the board at March’s Málaga Film Festival, has wrapped shooting on her sophomore feature, “Eres Tú,” a Netflix’ romantic comedy produced by Antonio Asensio and Paloma Molina at Zeta Studios – the Madrid-based company behind phenomenon “Elite.” Miriam Rodríguez executive produces.
After distributing Almodovar and signing up J.A. Bayona for real-life disaster drama “Society of the Snow,” Ruiz de Azúa’s attachment to “Eres tú” marks another association with a prestige director by Netflix in Spain.
Netflix Spain already accounts for three of the five most watched non-English Netflix movies ever: “The Platform,” “Below Zero” and “Through My Window.” It is, however, progressively diversifying its slate of series, movies, documentaries and TV shows by incorporating different creators profiles to create potential crowd-pleasers.
“Eres tú” follows Javier who, when 16 and kissing a girl for the first time, discovers that he had a gift of romantic clairvoyance.
After distributing Almodovar and signing up J.A. Bayona for real-life disaster drama “Society of the Snow,” Ruiz de Azúa’s attachment to “Eres tú” marks another association with a prestige director by Netflix in Spain.
Netflix Spain already accounts for three of the five most watched non-English Netflix movies ever: “The Platform,” “Below Zero” and “Through My Window.” It is, however, progressively diversifying its slate of series, movies, documentaries and TV shows by incorporating different creators profiles to create potential crowd-pleasers.
“Eres tú” follows Javier who, when 16 and kissing a girl for the first time, discovers that he had a gift of romantic clairvoyance.
- 4/11/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
After more than a two decades relationship, media conglom Atresmedia Group and the Málaga Film Festival have grown what looks like a unique case of symbiosis in the Spanish film-tv industry.
Atresmedia, a driving force in Spain’s film and TV sectors, joined the Málaga Festival as an official sponsor in 2000.
The DeAPlaneta-controlled broadcaster and Málaga, today Spain’s biggest festival dedicated to local and Latin American film and TV, have been faithful witnesses of the evolution of the Spanish film and TV industry.
The relationship has benefited both partners.
The Málaga Festival launched in 1998; one year later, a law began to oblige Spanish broadcasters to invest 5% of their annual revenues in local and European films. Broadcasters’ relevance in Spanish film financing rapidly multiplied.
Atresmedia -until 10 years ago Antena 3- started by tabling an economic contribution to the festival budget. At the same time, part of its annual...
Atresmedia, a driving force in Spain’s film and TV sectors, joined the Málaga Festival as an official sponsor in 2000.
The DeAPlaneta-controlled broadcaster and Málaga, today Spain’s biggest festival dedicated to local and Latin American film and TV, have been faithful witnesses of the evolution of the Spanish film and TV industry.
The relationship has benefited both partners.
The Málaga Festival launched in 1998; one year later, a law began to oblige Spanish broadcasters to invest 5% of their annual revenues in local and European films. Broadcasters’ relevance in Spanish film financing rapidly multiplied.
Atresmedia -until 10 years ago Antena 3- started by tabling an economic contribution to the festival budget. At the same time, part of its annual...
- 3/24/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix has recently released Spain’s first film using LED volume technology, teen romantic drama “Through My Window” (“A Través de mi Ventana”).
Produced by Adrian Guerra’s Nostromo Pictures alongside sister company Orca Studios, the Spanish-language film features real-time rendered CG scenes shot in-camera as part of its production.
Its LED volume technology is the same ground-breaking virtual production process utilized by Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm) on Disney Plus’ hit series “The Mandalorian” and is considered by many as the most significant technological advance since green screen.
LED wall volumes replace static backgrounds in virtual studios with exterior or interior images that adjust in sync with camera movement, powered by video game PC engines, such as Unreal for “The Mandalorian.”
“We selected three scenes — the heliport, the penthouse interior and the elevator — as they had different challenges and needs,” said Guerra, adding: “We also shot some car sequences directly in the LED volume,...
Produced by Adrian Guerra’s Nostromo Pictures alongside sister company Orca Studios, the Spanish-language film features real-time rendered CG scenes shot in-camera as part of its production.
Its LED volume technology is the same ground-breaking virtual production process utilized by Industrial Light & Magic (Ilm) on Disney Plus’ hit series “The Mandalorian” and is considered by many as the most significant technological advance since green screen.
LED wall volumes replace static backgrounds in virtual studios with exterior or interior images that adjust in sync with camera movement, powered by video game PC engines, such as Unreal for “The Mandalorian.”
“We selected three scenes — the heliport, the penthouse interior and the elevator — as they had different challenges and needs,” said Guerra, adding: “We also shot some car sequences directly in the LED volume,...
- 2/11/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, a regular at Cannes, is currently in post-production on his next feature “Dobaaraa,” a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.”
Kashyap had read the script of “Mirage” before the film was made and was taken by it. This is the first time Kashyap has done a remake. “It is a nice, fascinating idea for me to delve into, I can’t come up with an idea like that,” Kashyap told Variety. “So I said, why not step outside my secure zone and attempt something.”
In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.
The film is headlined by Taapsee Pannu, one of India’s top actors,...
Kashyap had read the script of “Mirage” before the film was made and was taken by it. This is the first time Kashyap has done a remake. “It is a nice, fascinating idea for me to delve into, I can’t come up with an idea like that,” Kashyap told Variety. “So I said, why not step outside my secure zone and attempt something.”
In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.
The film is headlined by Taapsee Pannu, one of India’s top actors,...
- 7/8/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix is about to introduce one of Mexico’s most legendary fictional families to the English-speaking world with “We Are the Nobles,” a new U.S. film adaptation of Mexican sensation “Nosotros los Nobles” (The Noble Family).
Eight years ago, Gaz Alazraki’s family comedy became a certified blockbuster, and still ranks as the second highest-grossing Mexican film of all time, behind “Instructions Not Included.” When Netflix was getting into original production outside of the U.S., its first effort was the series “Club of Crows,” created by Alazraki and inspired by his cinema super-hit.
Netflix is co-producing with Alazraki, who produced and directed the original, and Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe from 26th Street Pictures, with whom the streamer has a larger overall deal, which also includes an untitled Chupacabra film with Jonas Cuarón, son and frequent collaborator of Alfonso Cuarón. Guido Rud, CEO and founder at FilmSharks,...
Eight years ago, Gaz Alazraki’s family comedy became a certified blockbuster, and still ranks as the second highest-grossing Mexican film of all time, behind “Instructions Not Included.” When Netflix was getting into original production outside of the U.S., its first effort was the series “Club of Crows,” created by Alazraki and inspired by his cinema super-hit.
Netflix is co-producing with Alazraki, who produced and directed the original, and Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe from 26th Street Pictures, with whom the streamer has a larger overall deal, which also includes an untitled Chupacabra film with Jonas Cuarón, son and frequent collaborator of Alfonso Cuarón. Guido Rud, CEO and founder at FilmSharks,...
- 5/4/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
In 2006, the French feature film adaptation of Harlan Coben’s “Tell No One” set a precedent that the author’s work could not only be adapted to the screen, winning a slew of awards including four Cesars, but that it could do so outside of the stories’ native U.S.
In 2018, with a host of popular series and film versions of his stories having been produced across the U.K. and Europe, Netflix’s own adaptation of “Safe” prompted the company to lock down the creator to a five-year deal in which 14 of his novels are to be developed into original Netflix series or films. The first was another U.K. adaptation, this time of his novel “The Stranger” with Poland’s “The Woods” coming shortly after. Most recently, Coben teamed with Spanish thriller maestro Oriol Paulo on “The Innocent” (“El inocente”), which will premiere globally on April 30. Up next...
In 2018, with a host of popular series and film versions of his stories having been produced across the U.K. and Europe, Netflix’s own adaptation of “Safe” prompted the company to lock down the creator to a five-year deal in which 14 of his novels are to be developed into original Netflix series or films. The first was another U.K. adaptation, this time of his novel “The Stranger” with Poland’s “The Woods” coming shortly after. Most recently, Coben teamed with Spanish thriller maestro Oriol Paulo on “The Innocent” (“El inocente”), which will premiere globally on April 30. Up next...
- 4/27/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
With 75 million copies of his novels in circulation around the globe, American author Harlan Coben has conquered the world of print with his popular brand of crime thrillers, including the Myron Bolitar series.
He is now making great strides into the new frontier of streaming via a one-of-a-kind deal with Netflix. First struck in 2018, the pact is a multi-million-dollar, five-year deal under the terms of which 14 of Coben’s books will be adapted into series or films for the online platform, with him overseeing the projects in various capacities.
Alongside its sheer scope, the deal is also unique in the fact that it was designed to be vibrantly international from day one, with the English-language novels being adapted into a variety of foreign languages via Netflix’s various production hubs across Europe. To date, adaptations have been produced in Poland (The Woods), Spain, and France, alongside English-language projects including The Stranger and the upcoming Stay Close.
Coben sometimes pens the adaptations himself, while other times he hands over the reins, particularly when the language is being changed, and acts as an EP. But as he explains to us below, he always has a creative handle on the material. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Coben recently set an adaptation of his YA novel Shelter at Amazon Prime Video, and he has further projects in the works at Apple and MGM International.
Deadline sat down with the prolific author and creator to chat about inking the deal with Netflix, why he loves seeing his work adapted into languages around the world, and what he has coming up.
Deadline: You are having a prolific run with your TV series, plus you are still penning new novels, where does your energy come from?
Harlan Coben: It’s a love of storytelling. I love doing this, it’s the only thing I’m good at. I have no other life. I was once asked, “if you weren’t a writer, what would you be?” And one of my friends said “a U.S. senator”. I was like, “oh please, I’d be a duvet cover”. I got nothing else.
Deadline: How did your Netflix deal first come about?
Coben: I had made a couple of TV shows in France for TF1 that had done well, and had gotten onto Netflix’s radar. We were making Safe together [Coben and his producers at Red Production Company] with Netflix’s international division, they wanted to make one show in France, a show in the UK, and then they came up with the idea [for the overall deal]. They want to do a lot of international stuff and my books sell well overseas. I sell more internationally than I do in the USA. I thought it would be a cool opportunity, to do a Netflix Spain show, Netflix France show, Netflix UK show, Netflix U.S. show. It was appealing to me.
The idea was to get interesting talent that you wouldn’t normally get for TV series. The Innocent director Oriol Paulo is a huge film director in Span. [Lead actor] Mario Casas is probably as big a star as there is in Spain. Netflix teaming up with me, it was a great synergy. I really love working with them, that’s unusual for a network or a streamer. I hate this term, but we had a shared vision of what we wanted to do. They weren’t going to pressure me into doing a season two, three, four or five. I could make it six episodes, eight or 10. Whatever we need to make the story work.
It’s also really exciting for me, and the talent involved, that on one day, the series drops all eight episodes in 190 countries. More than 200 million subscribers, how many people is that? All at one time. It’s a cool space to be in.
To have the opportunity to work with Netflix – with so many different people, in so many different countries, so many different cultures – if that doesn’t jazz you, you’re probably in the wrong business.
Deadline: Do you stay up for the series launch? How do you monitor it?
Coben: The show [The Innocent] is actually on my Netflix already. My wife and I watched all eight episodes to see how the dubbing was. I’ll wake up the next day and I’ll already be inundated with responses, which doesn’t happen with a book. Within two or three days, millions of people will have watched all eight episodes, I guess.
Deadline: It’s interesting that you say ‘I guess’, seeing as Netflix doesn’t provide numbers, but can you still gauge the response?
Coben: You can definitely feel it. They do give me some numbers, but I’m sworn to secrecy. The Stranger, for example, exploded but a little bit slowly, it kept resonating. There was a sense with my partners in England that you start to feel that momentum. How many calls you’re getting, how much noise is being made. For the most part I try to keep my head down.
Deadline: The original pact with Netflix was a serious commitment, what gave you the confidence to sign that?
Coben: I saw what they were about on Safe, and I still work with a lot of the same people. If I was trying to do TV series 20 years ago, which I wasn’t, the episodes would have to be 40 minutes, start with a crime, end with a crime, 22-episode seasons, that would not fit what I do. Netflix does. My next show in France [Gone For Good] is five episodes, The Innocent is eight, some episodes are 40 minutes, some are 50 minutes. For my kind of storytelling, streaming fits.
I don’t want to sound too Pollyanna here, but they are also doing really interesting things with their marketing. They change up the poster you’re looking at on the platform, to get new people to watch it. I am a guy who wants people to watch my shows. That sounds obvious but a lot of writers pretend they don’t care, I do care. Netflix has a tremendous worldwide platform and that’s cool.
Deadline: Do you have carte blanche regarding which novels get adapted?
Coben: Yes and no. They’ve never overruled me. On The Innocent, I met a bunch of teams, the team for Brazil, Germany etc. The head of the team from Spain said he really thought The Innocent would be perfect for them and Oriol Paulo. I met Oriol in New York and it just clicked, we were like brothers from day one. We then took the next step. It’s not like I say ‘I want to make X in Germany’. It’s co-operative.
I was in the UK for the premiere of The Stranger, then I flew down to Barcelona to watch them filming The Innocent. then I went to Paris to meet the team. How much fun is that?
Deadline: Have you always been interested in working internationally?
Coben: Before I was a writer I worked in the international travel business. It was a family business, my job was to fly over to different countries and help set up trips. I’ve always had a great affection for travel.
We are living in the golden age of television. Five years ago, no American would watch a foreign-language show. They just wouldn’t. There’s so much talent out there internationally now, the best stuff is really being done in pockets that haven’t had the U.S. saturation yet. Americans are such Americentric people, but we’re learning.
The shows are hybrids. You can still feel the Americanism, what I do, but they can also feel Spanish [with The Innocent].
Deadline: There is a huge appetite for Spanish-language content, particularly because there are so many Spanish-speaking people outside of Spain. There is also a large Polish diaspora but not to the same extent, how was the experience making The Woods?
Coben: It was cool. I can’t be as involved with some of the foreign-language ones, I do rely a lot more on the team over there. I really thought they did a great job. Next time I’d even push for it to be slightly more American, maybe faster paced, but I think it was moody and atmospheric and really interesting. I loved the cast, the direction, the two time periods idea. I’ve not been disappointed with one of the adaptations yet.
Some I am more hands-on with than others. I am actively involved in each one, especially at the beginning. For this one [The Innocent], me and Oriol discussed it from the beginning. I gave a lot of notes on the scripts. They’d send me the rushes by email every day, but I rarely had comments. I was more involved again during the editing.
Deadline: Is the goal still to do 14 adaptations in five years?
Coben: I don’t know. The Innocent comes out April 30, followed by Gone For Good in France, then Stay Close in the UK. Then I’m not sure. We’ll look to make future series in various countries, we’re developing three others right now that I can’t talk about, one of which is in a new territory. It might end up being more original ideas and fewer novels [Safe was based on an original idea by Coben]. It’s something Netflix and I will talk about and we’ll decide together.
Deadline: Or they’re going to call you up three months before the end of the deal and say ‘you still owe us six adaptations’…
Coben: That would be a lot of fun [laughs].
Deadline: You also recently made a deal with Amazon for your Young Adult novel Shelter, plus you have projects with Apple and MGM International too, how does that work with the Netflix deal?
Coben: The Netflix’s deal doesn’t cover my Myron Bolitar series, or its YA spin-off Mickey Bolitar series. Amazon is turning the YA books into series. I’ll let you know which streamer is best to work with by the end of it [laughs].
Deadline: Are you writing more novels at the moment?
Coben: Win just came out last month. Regarding what’s next – in The Stranger, ‘the stranger’ gets away, I’d never thought about what happens to them after it ends. I’m now writing this sequel to The Boy From The Woods and the stranger just popped up. This could end up being a sequel to both books, which wasn’t my intention. We’ll see how it all turns out.
Deadline: Any thoughts on taking a break?
Coben: I’m not very good with breaks. Life is about balance. I always like to write in the morning, I’m not in balance if I’m not writing, or thinking about writing or creating. I don’t see it stopping soon, but man plans, god laughs.
He is now making great strides into the new frontier of streaming via a one-of-a-kind deal with Netflix. First struck in 2018, the pact is a multi-million-dollar, five-year deal under the terms of which 14 of Coben’s books will be adapted into series or films for the online platform, with him overseeing the projects in various capacities.
Alongside its sheer scope, the deal is also unique in the fact that it was designed to be vibrantly international from day one, with the English-language novels being adapted into a variety of foreign languages via Netflix’s various production hubs across Europe. To date, adaptations have been produced in Poland (The Woods), Spain, and France, alongside English-language projects including The Stranger and the upcoming Stay Close.
Coben sometimes pens the adaptations himself, while other times he hands over the reins, particularly when the language is being changed, and acts as an EP. But as he explains to us below, he always has a creative handle on the material. As if he wasn’t busy enough, Coben recently set an adaptation of his YA novel Shelter at Amazon Prime Video, and he has further projects in the works at Apple and MGM International.
Deadline sat down with the prolific author and creator to chat about inking the deal with Netflix, why he loves seeing his work adapted into languages around the world, and what he has coming up.
Deadline: You are having a prolific run with your TV series, plus you are still penning new novels, where does your energy come from?
Harlan Coben: It’s a love of storytelling. I love doing this, it’s the only thing I’m good at. I have no other life. I was once asked, “if you weren’t a writer, what would you be?” And one of my friends said “a U.S. senator”. I was like, “oh please, I’d be a duvet cover”. I got nothing else.
Deadline: How did your Netflix deal first come about?
Coben: I had made a couple of TV shows in France for TF1 that had done well, and had gotten onto Netflix’s radar. We were making Safe together [Coben and his producers at Red Production Company] with Netflix’s international division, they wanted to make one show in France, a show in the UK, and then they came up with the idea [for the overall deal]. They want to do a lot of international stuff and my books sell well overseas. I sell more internationally than I do in the USA. I thought it would be a cool opportunity, to do a Netflix Spain show, Netflix France show, Netflix UK show, Netflix U.S. show. It was appealing to me.
The idea was to get interesting talent that you wouldn’t normally get for TV series. The Innocent director Oriol Paulo is a huge film director in Span. [Lead actor] Mario Casas is probably as big a star as there is in Spain. Netflix teaming up with me, it was a great synergy. I really love working with them, that’s unusual for a network or a streamer. I hate this term, but we had a shared vision of what we wanted to do. They weren’t going to pressure me into doing a season two, three, four or five. I could make it six episodes, eight or 10. Whatever we need to make the story work.
It’s also really exciting for me, and the talent involved, that on one day, the series drops all eight episodes in 190 countries. More than 200 million subscribers, how many people is that? All at one time. It’s a cool space to be in.
To have the opportunity to work with Netflix – with so many different people, in so many different countries, so many different cultures – if that doesn’t jazz you, you’re probably in the wrong business.
Deadline: Do you stay up for the series launch? How do you monitor it?
Coben: The show [The Innocent] is actually on my Netflix already. My wife and I watched all eight episodes to see how the dubbing was. I’ll wake up the next day and I’ll already be inundated with responses, which doesn’t happen with a book. Within two or three days, millions of people will have watched all eight episodes, I guess.
Deadline: It’s interesting that you say ‘I guess’, seeing as Netflix doesn’t provide numbers, but can you still gauge the response?
Coben: You can definitely feel it. They do give me some numbers, but I’m sworn to secrecy. The Stranger, for example, exploded but a little bit slowly, it kept resonating. There was a sense with my partners in England that you start to feel that momentum. How many calls you’re getting, how much noise is being made. For the most part I try to keep my head down.
Deadline: The original pact with Netflix was a serious commitment, what gave you the confidence to sign that?
Coben: I saw what they were about on Safe, and I still work with a lot of the same people. If I was trying to do TV series 20 years ago, which I wasn’t, the episodes would have to be 40 minutes, start with a crime, end with a crime, 22-episode seasons, that would not fit what I do. Netflix does. My next show in France [Gone For Good] is five episodes, The Innocent is eight, some episodes are 40 minutes, some are 50 minutes. For my kind of storytelling, streaming fits.
I don’t want to sound too Pollyanna here, but they are also doing really interesting things with their marketing. They change up the poster you’re looking at on the platform, to get new people to watch it. I am a guy who wants people to watch my shows. That sounds obvious but a lot of writers pretend they don’t care, I do care. Netflix has a tremendous worldwide platform and that’s cool.
Deadline: Do you have carte blanche regarding which novels get adapted?
Coben: Yes and no. They’ve never overruled me. On The Innocent, I met a bunch of teams, the team for Brazil, Germany etc. The head of the team from Spain said he really thought The Innocent would be perfect for them and Oriol Paulo. I met Oriol in New York and it just clicked, we were like brothers from day one. We then took the next step. It’s not like I say ‘I want to make X in Germany’. It’s co-operative.
I was in the UK for the premiere of The Stranger, then I flew down to Barcelona to watch them filming The Innocent. then I went to Paris to meet the team. How much fun is that?
Deadline: Have you always been interested in working internationally?
Coben: Before I was a writer I worked in the international travel business. It was a family business, my job was to fly over to different countries and help set up trips. I’ve always had a great affection for travel.
We are living in the golden age of television. Five years ago, no American would watch a foreign-language show. They just wouldn’t. There’s so much talent out there internationally now, the best stuff is really being done in pockets that haven’t had the U.S. saturation yet. Americans are such Americentric people, but we’re learning.
The shows are hybrids. You can still feel the Americanism, what I do, but they can also feel Spanish [with The Innocent].
Deadline: There is a huge appetite for Spanish-language content, particularly because there are so many Spanish-speaking people outside of Spain. There is also a large Polish diaspora but not to the same extent, how was the experience making The Woods?
Coben: It was cool. I can’t be as involved with some of the foreign-language ones, I do rely a lot more on the team over there. I really thought they did a great job. Next time I’d even push for it to be slightly more American, maybe faster paced, but I think it was moody and atmospheric and really interesting. I loved the cast, the direction, the two time periods idea. I’ve not been disappointed with one of the adaptations yet.
Some I am more hands-on with than others. I am actively involved in each one, especially at the beginning. For this one [The Innocent], me and Oriol discussed it from the beginning. I gave a lot of notes on the scripts. They’d send me the rushes by email every day, but I rarely had comments. I was more involved again during the editing.
Deadline: Is the goal still to do 14 adaptations in five years?
Coben: I don’t know. The Innocent comes out April 30, followed by Gone For Good in France, then Stay Close in the UK. Then I’m not sure. We’ll look to make future series in various countries, we’re developing three others right now that I can’t talk about, one of which is in a new territory. It might end up being more original ideas and fewer novels [Safe was based on an original idea by Coben]. It’s something Netflix and I will talk about and we’ll decide together.
Deadline: Or they’re going to call you up three months before the end of the deal and say ‘you still owe us six adaptations’…
Coben: That would be a lot of fun [laughs].
Deadline: You also recently made a deal with Amazon for your Young Adult novel Shelter, plus you have projects with Apple and MGM International too, how does that work with the Netflix deal?
Coben: The Netflix’s deal doesn’t cover my Myron Bolitar series, or its YA spin-off Mickey Bolitar series. Amazon is turning the YA books into series. I’ll let you know which streamer is best to work with by the end of it [laughs].
Deadline: Are you writing more novels at the moment?
Coben: Win just came out last month. Regarding what’s next – in The Stranger, ‘the stranger’ gets away, I’d never thought about what happens to them after it ends. I’m now writing this sequel to The Boy From The Woods and the stranger just popped up. This could end up being a sequel to both books, which wasn’t my intention. We’ll see how it all turns out.
Deadline: Any thoughts on taking a break?
Coben: I’m not very good with breaks. Life is about balance. I always like to write in the morning, I’m not in balance if I’m not writing, or thinking about writing or creating. I don’t see it stopping soon, but man plans, god laughs.
- 4/27/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix has announced a crop of upcoming projects in Spain, including three new drama series, two original films, and a pair of reality shows.
The series are:
Intimacy (Intimidad), which has been created by Verónica Fernández and Laura Sarmiento, directed by Jorge Torregrossa, Ben Gutteridge, Marta Font, Koldo Almandoz and stars Itziar Ituño, Patricia López Arnaiz, Verónica Echegui, Ana Wagener and Emma Suárez. The show follows four women who are forced to walk the thin line that separates public life from private life after sexual video of a politician with a promising future is released.
Baruca is a six-part action series created by Victor Sierra and Xosé Morais, directed by Óscar Pedraza, and starring Alberto Ammann and Luis Callejo. It is set in the psychiatric prison Monte Baruca on December 24, when a group of armed men surround the complex and cut of all communication with the outside world.
The series are:
Intimacy (Intimidad), which has been created by Verónica Fernández and Laura Sarmiento, directed by Jorge Torregrossa, Ben Gutteridge, Marta Font, Koldo Almandoz and stars Itziar Ituño, Patricia López Arnaiz, Verónica Echegui, Ana Wagener and Emma Suárez. The show follows four women who are forced to walk the thin line that separates public life from private life after sexual video of a politician with a promising future is released.
Baruca is a six-part action series created by Victor Sierra and Xosé Morais, directed by Óscar Pedraza, and starring Alberto Ammann and Luis Callejo. It is set in the psychiatric prison Monte Baruca on December 24, when a group of armed men surround the complex and cut of all communication with the outside world.
- 4/15/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
At one of its increasingly regular presentations, on Thursday Netflix Spain unveiled seven new projects including “If Only,” a Spanish adaptation of the Netflix Turkish original canceled before shooting by Turkish authorities.
Where once Netflix would host its presentations early in the year and announce its ambitions for the next 12 months, the platform’s original Spanish programming pipeline has grown to an extent that Thursday’s showcase only covers the next few months and hinted at plenty more to come in late 2021.
In both level and volume of production, the day’s announcements confirm Netflix as one of if not the, foremost investors in original Spanish series and movies, at the same as its talent pool is expanding to include ever more of the principal producers in Spain. New Netflix originals are now being produced by now-regular partners Nostromo, producers of “The Minions of Midas”; “Élite” producers Zeta Studios; “Money Heist...
Where once Netflix would host its presentations early in the year and announce its ambitions for the next 12 months, the platform’s original Spanish programming pipeline has grown to an extent that Thursday’s showcase only covers the next few months and hinted at plenty more to come in late 2021.
In both level and volume of production, the day’s announcements confirm Netflix as one of if not the, foremost investors in original Spanish series and movies, at the same as its talent pool is expanding to include ever more of the principal producers in Spain. New Netflix originals are now being produced by now-regular partners Nostromo, producers of “The Minions of Midas”; “Élite” producers Zeta Studios; “Money Heist...
- 4/15/2021
- by Jamie Lang and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Cush Jumbo (The Good Fight), James Nesbitt (The Missing), Richard Armitage (The Stranger) and Sarah Parish (Bancroft) have been set as cast in the series adaptation of Harlan Coben’s New York Times bestselling novel Stay Close at Netflix.
Nicola Shindler is exec producing the project for Studiocanal-owned Red Production Company, alongside Coben, Danny Brocklehurst and Richard Fee. Creator Coben is penning the eight-episode show alongside lead writer Brocklehurst and Fee. Juliet Charlesworth (Happy Valley) is series producer and Daniel O’Hara (The Stranger) is lead director and an exec producer.
In keeping with previous Coben adaptations at Netflix, Stay Close will be relocated from the U.S. to the UK. The story follows three people living comfortable lives who each conceal dark secrets that even the closest to them would never suspect; Megan (Jumbo), a working mother of three; Ray (Armitage), the once promising documentary photographer, now stuck in...
Nicola Shindler is exec producing the project for Studiocanal-owned Red Production Company, alongside Coben, Danny Brocklehurst and Richard Fee. Creator Coben is penning the eight-episode show alongside lead writer Brocklehurst and Fee. Juliet Charlesworth (Happy Valley) is series producer and Daniel O’Hara (The Stranger) is lead director and an exec producer.
In keeping with previous Coben adaptations at Netflix, Stay Close will be relocated from the U.S. to the UK. The story follows three people living comfortable lives who each conceal dark secrets that even the closest to them would never suspect; Megan (Jumbo), a working mother of three; Ray (Armitage), the once promising documentary photographer, now stuck in...
- 10/28/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Where can Netflix Spain go after hit show “Money Heist”? On Thursday, it unveiled seven new Spanish originals, including “Feria” from “Elite” creator Carlos Montero, that sketch some kind of answer and roadmap for the U.S. streaming giant in one of its European production powerhouses.
Though Netflix in Spain has seen its biggest global hits in two iconic young adult series, “Money Heist” and “Elite,” now, more than ever before, as it transforms into a general entertainment service, the U.S. streaming giant is mixing it up.
The seven new originals, set for release from 2021, run a gamut from Netflix’s first short format series to its most ambitious doc series ever, “800 Meters,” to two features, a standup special and just one drama series.
“Our vocation is to go on exciting the world with the charisma, diversity and creativity of stories made in Spain, and contribute to maintaining Spanish...
Though Netflix in Spain has seen its biggest global hits in two iconic young adult series, “Money Heist” and “Elite,” now, more than ever before, as it transforms into a general entertainment service, the U.S. streaming giant is mixing it up.
The seven new originals, set for release from 2021, run a gamut from Netflix’s first short format series to its most ambitious doc series ever, “800 Meters,” to two features, a standup special and just one drama series.
“Our vocation is to go on exciting the world with the charisma, diversity and creativity of stories made in Spain, and contribute to maintaining Spanish...
- 10/22/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Underscoring a larger perceived global market potential for Spanish movies, Warner Bros. Pictures Intl. España is upping its bet on Spanish film production, in volume, budgets and talent.
Once largely acquiring, and then releasing in Spain, around six national films annually, the Hollywood studio now plans to invest in, or officially produce, eight-10 features a year, with Spanish star-studded casts and top directorial talent.
Disclosed to Variety as Warner Bros. Spain unveiled its 2020-21 slate at Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the bigger push into Spanish production will also see the Hollywood studio continuing to partner on a joint development fund with Atresmedia Cine – a title-by-title non-exclusive alliance which is emerging as a key production axis on the Spanish movie scene.
At San Sebastian, Warner Bros. España updated Spanish media on five Spanish titles on its 2020-21 release slate, all produced by Atresmedia Cine, in association with Buendía Estudios. It...
Once largely acquiring, and then releasing in Spain, around six national films annually, the Hollywood studio now plans to invest in, or officially produce, eight-10 features a year, with Spanish star-studded casts and top directorial talent.
Disclosed to Variety as Warner Bros. Spain unveiled its 2020-21 slate at Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the bigger push into Spanish production will also see the Hollywood studio continuing to partner on a joint development fund with Atresmedia Cine – a title-by-title non-exclusive alliance which is emerging as a key production axis on the Spanish movie scene.
At San Sebastian, Warner Bros. España updated Spanish media on five Spanish titles on its 2020-21 release slate, all produced by Atresmedia Cine, in association with Buendía Estudios. It...
- 9/24/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Hit by piracy and poor word-of-mouth, Disney’s live-action retelling of a popular Chinese myth has grossed $36.3m since its September 11 release.
Disney’s Mulan grossed just $6.5m on its second weekend in China, according to figures from Artisan Gateway, a decline of 72% over its opening, and placing it second in the weekend chart (September 18-20) behind local war epic The Eight Hundred.
Hit by piracy and poor word-of-mouth, Disney’s live-action retelling of a popular Chinese myth has grossed a cumulative $36.3m since its September 11 release. In comparison, The Eight Hundred, which grossed $17.7m on its fifth weekend, reached...
Disney’s Mulan grossed just $6.5m on its second weekend in China, according to figures from Artisan Gateway, a decline of 72% over its opening, and placing it second in the weekend chart (September 18-20) behind local war epic The Eight Hundred.
Hit by piracy and poor word-of-mouth, Disney’s live-action retelling of a popular Chinese myth has grossed a cumulative $36.3m since its September 11 release. In comparison, The Eight Hundred, which grossed $17.7m on its fifth weekend, reached...
- 9/21/2020
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Disney’s “Mulan” made only $6.47 million over its second weekend in China, allowing it to be handily defeated once again by the local war epic “The Eight Hundred,” according to data from industry tracker Maoyan.
As of Sunday evening, the Disney title has earned a cumulative $36.5 million (Rmb 247 million) in the key territory. But “The Eight Hundred” led the Chinese box office by more than tripling those earnings, despite already being a month into its theatrical run.
“The Eight Hundred” has now earned a total of $425 million (Rmb 2.88 billion) since is Aug. 21 debut, making it China’s highest grossing film of the year so far. It is projected to continue on to a total box office of $446 million (Rmb 3.02 billion), according to Maoyan estimates.
In contrast, “Mulan” is currently projected to earn just $41 million (Rmb 278 million) — less than a tenth of that tally. The film accounted for about 1 in 5 screenings...
As of Sunday evening, the Disney title has earned a cumulative $36.5 million (Rmb 247 million) in the key territory. But “The Eight Hundred” led the Chinese box office by more than tripling those earnings, despite already being a month into its theatrical run.
“The Eight Hundred” has now earned a total of $425 million (Rmb 2.88 billion) since is Aug. 21 debut, making it China’s highest grossing film of the year so far. It is projected to continue on to a total box office of $446 million (Rmb 3.02 billion), according to Maoyan estimates.
In contrast, “Mulan” is currently projected to earn just $41 million (Rmb 278 million) — less than a tenth of that tally. The film accounted for about 1 in 5 screenings...
- 9/20/2020
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
The Atresmedia Group, the original producer of Netflix global hit “La casa de papel” and one of Spain’s leading media conglomerations, has built a brand as a powerhouse in the country’s blooming scripted TV industry.
As other big international broadcasters, such as ITV in the U.K. and Rtl in Germany, Atresmedia, now 30, is looking to depend as little as possible on a increasingly declining ad market, priming content creation and pay TV opportunities, extending the economic life of its prolific production factory.
Its series’ reach exploded a decade ago, driven by successful international sales on primetime hits such as Bambú-produced “Gran Hotel” and Boomerang TV’s “The Time in Between,” underscoring a never-seen-before foreign appetite for Spanish originals.
A more dramatic shift started six years ago, boosted by Spanish TV series’ growing impact, when its management team kicked off the task of gradually consolidating Atresmedia as a digital company,...
As other big international broadcasters, such as ITV in the U.K. and Rtl in Germany, Atresmedia, now 30, is looking to depend as little as possible on a increasingly declining ad market, priming content creation and pay TV opportunities, extending the economic life of its prolific production factory.
Its series’ reach exploded a decade ago, driven by successful international sales on primetime hits such as Bambú-produced “Gran Hotel” and Boomerang TV’s “The Time in Between,” underscoring a never-seen-before foreign appetite for Spanish originals.
A more dramatic shift started six years ago, boosted by Spanish TV series’ growing impact, when its management team kicked off the task of gradually consolidating Atresmedia as a digital company,...
- 9/2/2020
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Films used to world premiere at a festival, then open theatrically and then on pay TV. If they were from Spain, their first natural market would be France.
No more. Filmin, the high-flying upscale Spanish arthouse SVOD platform, will release on Friday the period shipwreck drama “Island of Lies,” a Spanish-Argentine co-production that marks the feature film debut of Spain’s Paula Cons, which already bowed successfully from May 14 on Argentine online channel CinearTV and VOD service Cinear.Play.
“Island of Lies” then bows in main competition from tomorrow at China’s Shanghai Festival, competing for its Golden Goblet.
Finally, it’s set for targeted theatrical release in the Spanish region of Galicia, in northwest Spain, where the action occurs, on Oct. 2.
Also distributed in Spain by Filmax, the feature is exciting large interest in China, where some Spanish movies have broken out to stellar box office trawls. For example,...
No more. Filmin, the high-flying upscale Spanish arthouse SVOD platform, will release on Friday the period shipwreck drama “Island of Lies,” a Spanish-Argentine co-production that marks the feature film debut of Spain’s Paula Cons, which already bowed successfully from May 14 on Argentine online channel CinearTV and VOD service Cinear.Play.
“Island of Lies” then bows in main competition from tomorrow at China’s Shanghai Festival, competing for its Golden Goblet.
Finally, it’s set for targeted theatrical release in the Spanish region of Galicia, in northwest Spain, where the action occurs, on Oct. 2.
Also distributed in Spain by Filmax, the feature is exciting large interest in China, where some Spanish movies have broken out to stellar box office trawls. For example,...
- 7/24/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: David Ayer has found his next film for Netflix. He is set to write, direct and produce with Chris Long through their Cedar Park banner an adaptation of the Harlan Coben bestseller Six Years. Netflix has just acquired the book for Ayer, who directed the Will Smith-Joel Edgerton-starrer Bright for the streamer.
As Louis Leterrier finalizes a deal to direct that sequel – Ayer’s co-wrote the script and is producing – the filmmaker will lean into the 2018 suspense novel.
The title refers to the number of years that passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. With a heart broken, he throws himself into his career as a college professor, while keeping a promise to leave her alone while he simmers in a slow building rage. His hopes rise when he reads that her husband died. Unable to help himself, he...
As Louis Leterrier finalizes a deal to direct that sequel – Ayer’s co-wrote the script and is producing – the filmmaker will lean into the 2018 suspense novel.
The title refers to the number of years that passed since Jake Fisher watched Natalie, the love of his life, marry another man. With a heart broken, he throws himself into his career as a college professor, while keeping a promise to leave her alone while he simmers in a slow building rage. His hopes rise when he reads that her husband died. Unable to help himself, he...
- 5/7/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Barcelona-based Rodar y Rodar, producer of Spanish horror titles such as J.A. Bayona’s “The Orphanage” and Oriol Paulo’s “The Body, has thrown its weight behind David Casademunt’s “The Beast,” boarding it as its main producer.
“The Beast,” which participated in Filmarket Hub’s 2017 Sitges Pitchbox event as well as Ventana Sur’s 2017 Blood Window, it was then was selected from 216 projects by first or second-time Spanish directors to be put through the 2018 Ecam Madrid Film School Incubator development program, before scoring a place at the Toronto Festival’s Filmmakers Lab. Casademunt had already turned heads with his Austin Fantastic Fest Grand Jury and Special Jury Award winning short, “Sleeping Death.”
Written with his regular co-writers Fran Menchón and Martí Lucas, “The Beast” is in a shack in the middle of nowhere, where a kid and his crazed mother glimpse a chilling presence watching them from the horizon...
“The Beast,” which participated in Filmarket Hub’s 2017 Sitges Pitchbox event as well as Ventana Sur’s 2017 Blood Window, it was then was selected from 216 projects by first or second-time Spanish directors to be put through the 2018 Ecam Madrid Film School Incubator development program, before scoring a place at the Toronto Festival’s Filmmakers Lab. Casademunt had already turned heads with his Austin Fantastic Fest Grand Jury and Special Jury Award winning short, “Sleeping Death.”
Written with his regular co-writers Fran Menchón and Martí Lucas, “The Beast” is in a shack in the middle of nowhere, where a kid and his crazed mother glimpse a chilling presence watching them from the horizon...
- 2/25/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — Netflix announced Thursday in Madrid seven new Spanish Originals: Two series, three features, one documentary and an unscripted title.
The titles confirm a rapid ramp-up in production volume for Netflix in Spain, whose output to date takes in two of the U.S. giant’s standout breakouts in international, not only in Spain but overseas “La Casa de Papel” (Money Heist), “High Seas” and “Elite.”
Netflix’s Spanish production output, which boasts the first Netflix European Production hub soundstage complex at Madrid’s Tres Cantosis already one of the most voluminous in the world with 32 current or upcoming productions, according to a September 2019 report by Ampere Analysis. Only the U.K., Japan, Cnada, Mexico and Brazil bettered that figure.
Among the novelties:
* A currently-untitled show, the first series created by renown Spanish film director Daniel Sanchez Arévalo,, described as “an exciting story of friendship and perseverance” in a netflix statement after the presentation.
The titles confirm a rapid ramp-up in production volume for Netflix in Spain, whose output to date takes in two of the U.S. giant’s standout breakouts in international, not only in Spain but overseas “La Casa de Papel” (Money Heist), “High Seas” and “Elite.”
Netflix’s Spanish production output, which boasts the first Netflix European Production hub soundstage complex at Madrid’s Tres Cantosis already one of the most voluminous in the world with 32 current or upcoming productions, according to a September 2019 report by Ampere Analysis. Only the U.K., Japan, Cnada, Mexico and Brazil bettered that figure.
Among the novelties:
* A currently-untitled show, the first series created by renown Spanish film director Daniel Sanchez Arévalo,, described as “an exciting story of friendship and perseverance” in a netflix statement after the presentation.
- 1/30/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The Body
Starring Rishi Kapoor, Emraan Hashmi, Sobhita Dhulipala
Directed by Jeethu Joseph
In what could be considered a significant step up in her career, Sobhita Dhulipala (so watchable in the webseries Made In Heaven) gets to play the title role. Yippee!
Yes, she is the eponymous Body, and well qualified to play the role. And among all the heroines that Emraan Hashmi has kissed on screen, this one has the most eligible lips.
She plays a very spoilt heiress, the kind who thinks she has a great sense of humour and no one corrects her because of her wealth. So at her wedding mandap she turns to her husband-in-waiting Emraan Hashmi and says with a poker face that she doesn’t want to marry him as she knows he wants to marry her for her wealth.
While Hashmi (the only actor in this film who takes his role seriously...
Starring Rishi Kapoor, Emraan Hashmi, Sobhita Dhulipala
Directed by Jeethu Joseph
In what could be considered a significant step up in her career, Sobhita Dhulipala (so watchable in the webseries Made In Heaven) gets to play the title role. Yippee!
Yes, she is the eponymous Body, and well qualified to play the role. And among all the heroines that Emraan Hashmi has kissed on screen, this one has the most eligible lips.
She plays a very spoilt heiress, the kind who thinks she has a great sense of humour and no one corrects her because of her wealth. So at her wedding mandap she turns to her husband-in-waiting Emraan Hashmi and says with a poker face that she doesn’t want to marry him as she knows he wants to marry her for her wealth.
While Hashmi (the only actor in this film who takes his role seriously...
- 12/15/2019
- by Subhash K Jha
- Bollyspice
San Sebastian — On Monday afternoon, leading figures from the Chinese and Spanish industries gathered to discuss future plans, sitting for a panel called “China/Spain: The Belt and Road Initiatives: The New Era for Co-Production.”
Moderated by producer Ying Liu, the panel brought together executives Marta Ezpeleta (The Mediapro Studio), Lu Wei (Beijing East Purple Cloud Film Company) and Mercedes Gamero (Atresmedia Cine), producers Miao Xiaotian (former director of the China Film Co-production Commission) and Joan Antoni Gonzalez Serret (founder of the Catalan Film Institute), actress Nora Navas (“Pain and Glory”), director Sonthar Gyal (“Lhamo and Skalbe”), and the Icaa’s Jaime Alejandre, who handles international relations and partnerships for Spain’s publicly funded film agency.
The panelists began by reflecting on the recent Middle Kingdom success of Oriol Paulo’s thriller “Mirage,” a Spanish production that earned more than $16 million at the Chinese box when it opened earlier this year.
Moderated by producer Ying Liu, the panel brought together executives Marta Ezpeleta (The Mediapro Studio), Lu Wei (Beijing East Purple Cloud Film Company) and Mercedes Gamero (Atresmedia Cine), producers Miao Xiaotian (former director of the China Film Co-production Commission) and Joan Antoni Gonzalez Serret (founder of the Catalan Film Institute), actress Nora Navas (“Pain and Glory”), director Sonthar Gyal (“Lhamo and Skalbe”), and the Icaa’s Jaime Alejandre, who handles international relations and partnerships for Spain’s publicly funded film agency.
The panelists began by reflecting on the recent Middle Kingdom success of Oriol Paulo’s thriller “Mirage,” a Spanish production that earned more than $16 million at the Chinese box when it opened earlier this year.
- 9/23/2019
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix is adapting Harlan Coben’s mystery thriller The Woods as a Polish original.
The Svod series has commissioned the European original from directors Leszek Dawid (You Are God) and Bartosz Konopka (Rabbit a la Berlin) and writers Agata Malesińska and Wojtek Miłoszewsk. Atm Grupa with Coben exec producing alongside Anna Nagler (The Coldest Game) and Andrzej Muszyński.
The six-part series will launch in 2020. It is the latest international adaptation of a Coben book for Netflix; the digital platform is remaking El Inocente in Spain with Oriol Paulo and The Stranger and Safe in the UK. The series is financially supported by the Polish Film Institute.
Set in two time spans, 1994 and 2019, The Woods tells the story of a Warsaw prosecutor, Paweł Kopiński, who is still grieving the loss of his sister from twenty five years ago – the night she walked into the woods at a summer camp and was never seen again.
The Svod series has commissioned the European original from directors Leszek Dawid (You Are God) and Bartosz Konopka (Rabbit a la Berlin) and writers Agata Malesińska and Wojtek Miłoszewsk. Atm Grupa with Coben exec producing alongside Anna Nagler (The Coldest Game) and Andrzej Muszyński.
The six-part series will launch in 2020. It is the latest international adaptation of a Coben book for Netflix; the digital platform is remaking El Inocente in Spain with Oriol Paulo and The Stranger and Safe in the UK. The series is financially supported by the Polish Film Institute.
Set in two time spans, 1994 and 2019, The Woods tells the story of a Warsaw prosecutor, Paweł Kopiński, who is still grieving the loss of his sister from twenty five years ago – the night she walked into the woods at a summer camp and was never seen again.
- 9/12/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Spanish box office hit The Body (El Cuerpo) is set to get an English-language remake with Mexican multi-hyphenate Isaac Ezban’s (Parallel) Red Elephant Films and Scott Einbinder’s (Killer Joe) La-based Ana Media. Ezban will direct the thriller and produce alongside Einbinder.
The well-received 2012 original, about a detective searching for the body of a femme fatale which has gone missing from a morgue, bagged $8.3M at the Spanish box office for Sony where it was the third-highest grossing local-language film of the year. Director Oriol Paulo also scored a Goya nomination for best newcomer. Pic was produced by Spanish stalwarts Rodar y Rodar and Antena 3 Films.
The remake deal was brokered by Guido Rud of Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks who represented Red Elephant and Ana Media. London-based Meg Thompson represented the original film’s producers.
A Korean remake of The Body opened number one last year in its...
The well-received 2012 original, about a detective searching for the body of a femme fatale which has gone missing from a morgue, bagged $8.3M at the Spanish box office for Sony where it was the third-highest grossing local-language film of the year. Director Oriol Paulo also scored a Goya nomination for best newcomer. Pic was produced by Spanish stalwarts Rodar y Rodar and Antena 3 Films.
The remake deal was brokered by Guido Rud of Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks who represented Red Elephant and Ana Media. London-based Meg Thompson represented the original film’s producers.
A Korean remake of The Body opened number one last year in its...
- 6/19/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Barcelona-born director Oriol Paulo has done what few European filmmakers have managed to achieve: he’s cracked the Chinese market.
Paulo's 2017 crime thriller Invisible Guest, which grossed a respectable, if hardly outstanding, $3.9 million in Spain, earned $26 million in China. In April of this year, his follow-up, the time-travel mystery Mirage, was a flop in Spain, making less than $900,000 on its initial release via Warner Bros. — but it grossed nearly $17 million in China, prompting the studio to take the unconventional step of re-releasing it in Paulo's home territory.
Netflix snapped up world rights ...
Paulo's 2017 crime thriller Invisible Guest, which grossed a respectable, if hardly outstanding, $3.9 million in Spain, earned $26 million in China. In April of this year, his follow-up, the time-travel mystery Mirage, was a flop in Spain, making less than $900,000 on its initial release via Warner Bros. — but it grossed nearly $17 million in China, prompting the studio to take the unconventional step of re-releasing it in Paulo's home territory.
Netflix snapped up world rights ...
- 6/18/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Barcelona-born director Oriol Paulo has done what few European filmmakers have managed to achieve: he’s cracked the Chinese market.
Paulo's 2017 crime thriller Invisible Guest, which grossed a respectable, if hardly outstanding, $3.9 million in Spain, earned $26 million in China. In April of this year, his follow-up, the time-travel mystery Mirage, was a flop in Spain, making less than $900,000 on its initial release via Warner Bros. — but it grossed nearly $17 million in China, prompting the studio to take the unconventional step of re-releasing it in Paulo's home territory.
Netflix snapped up world rights ...
Paulo's 2017 crime thriller Invisible Guest, which grossed a respectable, if hardly outstanding, $3.9 million in Spain, earned $26 million in China. In April of this year, his follow-up, the time-travel mystery Mirage, was a flop in Spain, making less than $900,000 on its initial release via Warner Bros. — but it grossed nearly $17 million in China, prompting the studio to take the unconventional step of re-releasing it in Paulo's home territory.
Netflix snapped up world rights ...
- 6/18/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Only a decade ago, Spain was on the periphery of world production, making movies that, as with Pedro Almodovar’s 2019 Cannes competition contender “Pain and Glory,” occasionally sold worldwide.
Now, thanks to an Ott and digital TV revolution, Spain has become a burgeoning global production center.
Take, for instance, Oriol Paulo’s drama “Durante la Tormenta” (“Mirage”), in which a young wife and mother faces the loss of her beloved or the birth of her daughter.
Released in Spain on Nov. 30 by Warner Bros. Pictures, “Mirage” earned a quite modest $867,593. Yet in China, it opened No. 3 on March 27 and grossed $15.9 million.
A Netflix acquisition, the Atresmedia-Think Studio production has moreover gone on to be the only foreign-language movie singled out by Netflix in its April first quarter results, having “seen broad viewing across the world.”
Signs of success were spotted in 2011, when “Gran Hotel,” an original Spanish series, made a...
Now, thanks to an Ott and digital TV revolution, Spain has become a burgeoning global production center.
Take, for instance, Oriol Paulo’s drama “Durante la Tormenta” (“Mirage”), in which a young wife and mother faces the loss of her beloved or the birth of her daughter.
Released in Spain on Nov. 30 by Warner Bros. Pictures, “Mirage” earned a quite modest $867,593. Yet in China, it opened No. 3 on March 27 and grossed $15.9 million.
A Netflix acquisition, the Atresmedia-Think Studio production has moreover gone on to be the only foreign-language movie singled out by Netflix in its April first quarter results, having “seen broad viewing across the world.”
Signs of success were spotted in 2011, when “Gran Hotel,” an original Spanish series, made a...
- 5/17/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — David Castellanos’ Cinema Republic has acquired international sales rights to “h0us3,” a sci-fi horror thriller which instances the renaissance of Spanish smart genre with theatrical, Chinese and platform potential.
Castellanos will introduce the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Market which kicks off next Tuesday, May 14.
“h0us3” marks the feature debut of Spain’s Manolo Munguía, who studied Telecommunications Engineering in Santander.
It shows. The movie kicks off with a reunion of former university friends, all geeks and hackers, in the country home of Rafa, set in the idyllic rolling hills of Cantabria, northern Spain. There, Rafa, the group’s leader at university, reveals that he hacks into his neighbors’ email accounts – “I like to to be God,” he admits – and claims that he’s uncovered a secret Augmented Reality Wikileaks application allowing them to glimpse the future. That future, when extended just a few days,...
Castellanos will introduce the film to buyers at the Cannes Film Market which kicks off next Tuesday, May 14.
“h0us3” marks the feature debut of Spain’s Manolo Munguía, who studied Telecommunications Engineering in Santander.
It shows. The movie kicks off with a reunion of former university friends, all geeks and hackers, in the country home of Rafa, set in the idyllic rolling hills of Cantabria, northern Spain. There, Rafa, the group’s leader at university, reveals that he hacks into his neighbors’ email accounts – “I like to to be God,” he admits – and claims that he’s uncovered a secret Augmented Reality Wikileaks application allowing them to glimpse the future. That future, when extended just a few days,...
- 5/8/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
SVoD platform estimates it will employ 20,000 people in Spain.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Francisco Ramos, vice-president of originals for Spain and Latin America for Netflix, officially inaugurated the premises of the company’s first physical European hub, dubbed Casa Netflix, in Madrid today (April 4).
“Spain’s long history of production, great talent schools, great history and companies,” said Hastings in response to the question of why the company is investing so heavily in Spain. “It’s a very developed industry and we hope with the investments that we are making, and with others, it will continue to grow.”
Hastings...
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Francisco Ramos, vice-president of originals for Spain and Latin America for Netflix, officially inaugurated the premises of the company’s first physical European hub, dubbed Casa Netflix, in Madrid today (April 4).
“Spain’s long history of production, great talent schools, great history and companies,” said Hastings in response to the question of why the company is investing so heavily in Spain. “It’s a very developed industry and we hope with the investments that we are making, and with others, it will continue to grow.”
Hastings...
- 4/4/2019
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
Netflix has unveiled two new Spanish originals including an adaptation of a Harlan Coben story as Reed Hastings was in Madrid to open the Svod service’s first European production hub.
The digital platform has ordered El Inocente and Los Favoritos de Midas. El Inocente is a remake of Coben’s book and has been adapted for TV by Oriol Paulo. The eight-part series tells the tale of Mateo who, nine years ago, interceded in a fight and ended up becoming a murderer. Now he’s an ex-convict who takes nothing for granted. His wife, Olivia, is pregnant, and both are about to get the house of their dreams. But a shocking and inexplicable call from Olivia’s cell phone again destroys Mateo’s life for the second time.
Paulo writes alongside Jordi Vallejo and Guillem Clúa with Coben, Paulo, Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida, Eneko Lizarraga and Jesús de la Vega...
The digital platform has ordered El Inocente and Los Favoritos de Midas. El Inocente is a remake of Coben’s book and has been adapted for TV by Oriol Paulo. The eight-part series tells the tale of Mateo who, nine years ago, interceded in a fight and ended up becoming a murderer. Now he’s an ex-convict who takes nothing for granted. His wife, Olivia, is pregnant, and both are about to get the house of their dreams. But a shocking and inexplicable call from Olivia’s cell phone again destroys Mateo’s life for the second time.
Paulo writes alongside Jordi Vallejo and Guillem Clúa with Coben, Paulo, Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida, Eneko Lizarraga and Jesús de la Vega...
- 4/4/2019
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Madrid — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings officially inaugurated the U.S. streaming giant’s Madrid Production Hub, its first European production center, on Thursday morning.
While the hub’s first three sound stages look impressively efficient, they are designed principally for TV work, not gargantuan movie blockbuster production.
So it was Netflix’s plans for Spanish production which rreally made an impact at the inauguration. Francisco Ramos, Netflix vice president original contents, revealed two new Spanish series: “El Inocente,” created by Oriol Paulo, produced by Belén Atienza and Sandra Hermida; and “Los favoritos de Midas,” co-creted by Mateo Gil, starring Luis Tosar, and produced by Adrián Guerra and Nuria Valls at Nostromo Pictures.
Based on a best-seller by Harlan Coben, written by Jordi Vallejo, Paulo and Guillém Clúa, “El inocente” turns on an ex-con, Mateo, who nine years before accidentally killed a man, who, now out of jail, and with his...
While the hub’s first three sound stages look impressively efficient, they are designed principally for TV work, not gargantuan movie blockbuster production.
So it was Netflix’s plans for Spanish production which rreally made an impact at the inauguration. Francisco Ramos, Netflix vice president original contents, revealed two new Spanish series: “El Inocente,” created by Oriol Paulo, produced by Belén Atienza and Sandra Hermida; and “Los favoritos de Midas,” co-creted by Mateo Gil, starring Luis Tosar, and produced by Adrián Guerra and Nuria Valls at Nostromo Pictures.
Based on a best-seller by Harlan Coben, written by Jordi Vallejo, Paulo and Guillém Clúa, “El inocente” turns on an ex-con, Mateo, who nine years before accidentally killed a man, who, now out of jail, and with his...
- 4/4/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Ticket sales dropped 35 percent week-on-week.
The last week of March (March 25-31) suffered a heavy drop in ticket sales of 35% week-on-week making it the second-quietest week in 2019 so far, behind the traditionally slow pre-Chinese New Year week only.
Although February was the biggest single month in a single market, overall the first quarter of 2019 turned out to be a sluggish one at the China box office. Gross box office receipts fell by 8% to $2.8bn compared to the same period in 2018. The months of January and March were each down 20% year-on-year.
In such a slow week, Song Of Youth emerged as...
The last week of March (March 25-31) suffered a heavy drop in ticket sales of 35% week-on-week making it the second-quietest week in 2019 so far, behind the traditionally slow pre-Chinese New Year week only.
Although February was the biggest single month in a single market, overall the first quarter of 2019 turned out to be a sluggish one at the China box office. Gross box office receipts fell by 8% to $2.8bn compared to the same period in 2018. The months of January and March were each down 20% year-on-year.
In such a slow week, Song Of Youth emerged as...
- 4/1/2019
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Despite a lack of blockbuster competition, Disney’s live-action “Dumbo” didn’t fly all that far in its China opening, failing to soar past a nostalgic Chinese drama already in its second week as sentimental human-interest dramas filled many of the top spots.
Er Dong Pictures’ “Song of Youth” was the weekend’s top performer, taking in $11.7 million over the three-day period, according to figures from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The Maoyan online ticketing platform predicts that the film will earn $46.2 million (RMB310 million) over the course of its monthlong run in China – nearly double Maoyan’s prediction for “Dumbo.” Directed by newcomer Zhang Luan, “Song of Youth” tells the story of a teacher who changes the lives of his 1985 class of middle school students.
The Tim Burton-helmed “Dumbo” made only $10.8 million, in spite of a star-studded Hollywood cast including Eva Green, Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito and Thandie Newton’s daughter Nico Parker.
Er Dong Pictures’ “Song of Youth” was the weekend’s top performer, taking in $11.7 million over the three-day period, according to figures from consultancy Artisan Gateway. The Maoyan online ticketing platform predicts that the film will earn $46.2 million (RMB310 million) over the course of its monthlong run in China – nearly double Maoyan’s prediction for “Dumbo.” Directed by newcomer Zhang Luan, “Song of Youth” tells the story of a teacher who changes the lives of his 1985 class of middle school students.
The Tim Burton-helmed “Dumbo” made only $10.8 million, in spite of a star-studded Hollywood cast including Eva Green, Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito and Thandie Newton’s daughter Nico Parker.
- 4/1/2019
- by Rebecca Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Badla ? the crime thriller starring the icon for the icons Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu is rightly winning accolades from all circles. Sujoy Ghosh's official adaptation of Oriol Paulo?s The Invisible Guest is been hailed as a rare whodunit that keeps the audience guessing till the end.
Apart from its credentials as a captivating thriller with topnotch performance, Badla also teaches the following life lessons.
Stay true to the original
Director Sujoy Ghosh has given important tips on how to stay true to the original and remain triumph while adaptations in Badla. The director has skillfully kept the soul and the mind alive with some changes in the body ( gender changes in the lead characters ?? in the original the lawyer is a female and the accused is a businessman) and masterly used portions from the world?s greatest epic Mahabharata in putting forward his point.
(Also read:?Badla movie review: Spell bindingly sensational,...
Apart from its credentials as a captivating thriller with topnotch performance, Badla also teaches the following life lessons.
Stay true to the original
Director Sujoy Ghosh has given important tips on how to stay true to the original and remain triumph while adaptations in Badla. The director has skillfully kept the soul and the mind alive with some changes in the body ( gender changes in the lead characters ?? in the original the lawyer is a female and the accused is a businessman) and masterly used portions from the world?s greatest epic Mahabharata in putting forward his point.
(Also read:?Badla movie review: Spell bindingly sensational,...
- 3/12/2019
- GlamSham
Badla movie review is here. The highly awaited crime thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu is released today. Produced by Shah Rukh Khan?s Red Chillies Entertainment in association with Azure Entertainment, the movie is directed by Kahaani series fame Sujoy Ghosh. Does Badla that sees the reunion of the magnificent Amitabh Bachchan with Taapsee Pannu after the incredible Pink, captivates the audience to the hilt? Let?s find out in the Badla movie review.
Immediate reaction after watching Badla
Three cheers to Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu and Sujoy Ghosh, the Kahaani of triumph (story) gets repeated and with aplomb. Badla is a rare revenge drama, spell bindingly sensational, a terrific knock out.
The most incredible/astonishing feature of Badla
After a long time in Bollywood mainstream cinema, a revenge drama, a crime thriller that is not just a bang on right from the wor go, it dares to...
Immediate reaction after watching Badla
Three cheers to Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu and Sujoy Ghosh, the Kahaani of triumph (story) gets repeated and with aplomb. Badla is a rare revenge drama, spell bindingly sensational, a terrific knock out.
The most incredible/astonishing feature of Badla
After a long time in Bollywood mainstream cinema, a revenge drama, a crime thriller that is not just a bang on right from the wor go, it dares to...
- 3/8/2019
- GlamSham
Barcelona— A portrait of Francesc Boix, a Catalan photographer who managed to survive one of the most atrocious Nazi camps, “The Photographer of Mauthausen” will be released in Spain on Oct. 26 by Filmax. It’s the sophomore sally of producer-turned-director Mar Targarona who, alongside Joaquin Padró, is behind production of films such as Juan Antonio Bayona’s “The Orphanage” and Oriol Paulo’s “The Body.”
Barcelona-based Rodar y Rodar’s “Mauthausen” is a co-production with Netflix, We Produce 2017 Aie and Hungary’s Filmteam, backed by Spanish broadcaster Rtve and Catalan Tvc. Sold by Vicente Canales’ Film Factory, Netflix will be streaming the movie from Dec. 28.
Feature tells the little-known story of Boix, a Spanish Mauthausen inmate who managed to hide some 2,000 negatives –a testimony to the horror lived there— and smuggle them out of the concentration camp. These negatives played a decisive role in the Nuremberg Trials. Boix arrived at Mauthausen,...
Barcelona-based Rodar y Rodar’s “Mauthausen” is a co-production with Netflix, We Produce 2017 Aie and Hungary’s Filmteam, backed by Spanish broadcaster Rtve and Catalan Tvc. Sold by Vicente Canales’ Film Factory, Netflix will be streaming the movie from Dec. 28.
Feature tells the little-known story of Boix, a Spanish Mauthausen inmate who managed to hide some 2,000 negatives –a testimony to the horror lived there— and smuggle them out of the concentration camp. These negatives played a decisive role in the Nuremberg Trials. Boix arrived at Mauthausen,...
- 11/1/2018
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.