After 12 seasons on linear TV, flagship Spanish talent show “Operación Triunfo,” produced by Banijay Iberia’s Gestmusic, has jumped successfully to the online environment via Prime Video.
“Operación Triunfo’s” first gala was the most viewed premiere in the history of Prime Video in Spain. Its app for voting accumulated 53 million votes and, on social networks, generated 718.9 million views in TikTok and YouTube, according to VOD analytics Sigmados30.
Since 2021, when Netflix teamed with Grupo iZen to launch “Insiders,” the streamer’s first Spanish Original reality show, the demand of unscripted content on the online platforms has been progressively increasing.
“Entertainment can be more cost effective for streamers than producing fiction,” argues iZen president Jose Velasco, who years ago produced the Spanish version of “Big Brother.”
“On part of the streamers this has also been an effect of shifting their focus. Now, entertainment and documentaries are new ways to attract the...
“Operación Triunfo’s” first gala was the most viewed premiere in the history of Prime Video in Spain. Its app for voting accumulated 53 million votes and, on social networks, generated 718.9 million views in TikTok and YouTube, according to VOD analytics Sigmados30.
Since 2021, when Netflix teamed with Grupo iZen to launch “Insiders,” the streamer’s first Spanish Original reality show, the demand of unscripted content on the online platforms has been progressively increasing.
“Entertainment can be more cost effective for streamers than producing fiction,” argues iZen president Jose Velasco, who years ago produced the Spanish version of “Big Brother.”
“On part of the streamers this has also been an effect of shifting their focus. Now, entertainment and documentaries are new ways to attract the...
- 4/5/2024
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s film and TV industries are in their second wave as standout content providers for global streamers. Some of the country’s most intriguing titles will take the international stage this weekend at MipTV in Cannes.
Built on a foundation of hits such as “The Red Band Society,” “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Locked Up,” a new era of internationally renowned content creation in Spain kicked off in 2018 with Alex Pina’s blockbuster series “Money Heist,” picked up by Netflix.
Since then, Spain has enjoyed a place among the steadiest content suppliers for major players worldwide, taking advantage of its often character-driven dramas, high-quality creators and producers, and a language spoken by more than 600 million people around the globe.
Although the market is continuously evolving, local industry has adapted to different new business models, entering bigger and more ambitious productions, often via co-production. Spanish fiction’s global popularity continues to grow to accommodate audience appetites.
Built on a foundation of hits such as “The Red Band Society,” “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Locked Up,” a new era of internationally renowned content creation in Spain kicked off in 2018 with Alex Pina’s blockbuster series “Money Heist,” picked up by Netflix.
Since then, Spain has enjoyed a place among the steadiest content suppliers for major players worldwide, taking advantage of its often character-driven dramas, high-quality creators and producers, and a language spoken by more than 600 million people around the globe.
Although the market is continuously evolving, local industry has adapted to different new business models, entering bigger and more ambitious productions, often via co-production. Spanish fiction’s global popularity continues to grow to accommodate audience appetites.
- 4/5/2024
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Ancient Greek Aristotle got it right. The production whole is greater than the sum of its co-production parts. This was the sentiment at a Series Mania session titled ‘Fifty Shades of Co Pro’ on Tuesday.
Simone Emmelius, Zdf’s Senior VP international fiction – co-production and acquisition, laid it out: “You can only spend the Euro once, so you have the opportunity to maybe spend €200,000 [$218,000] on an episode, or you spend €200,000 on an episode that may cost €1.5 million. At the end of it, you get a production value of €1.5 million.” she explained. This encapsulates the essence of co-production, leveraging partnerships to attain a project that far exceeds what individual partners could do alone.
Three of Series Mania’s eight main international competition titles – “Apples Never Fall,” “Rematch,” “So Long, Marianne” — are co-productions. Some panel points of consensus:
Aligned Interests and Transparency
However, the foundation of a successful co-production lies in alignment,...
Simone Emmelius, Zdf’s Senior VP international fiction – co-production and acquisition, laid it out: “You can only spend the Euro once, so you have the opportunity to maybe spend €200,000 [$218,000] on an episode, or you spend €200,000 on an episode that may cost €1.5 million. At the end of it, you get a production value of €1.5 million.” she explained. This encapsulates the essence of co-production, leveraging partnerships to attain a project that far exceeds what individual partners could do alone.
Three of Series Mania’s eight main international competition titles – “Apples Never Fall,” “Rematch,” “So Long, Marianne” — are co-productions. Some panel points of consensus:
Aligned Interests and Transparency
However, the foundation of a successful co-production lies in alignment,...
- 3/20/2024
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
Spanish super-indie production-sales companies are stepping back in time with vigor, building on opportunities opened up by streamers’ growing market flexibility to retain IP and sell territory-by-territory.
Prioritizing bottom lines over market share, global platforms are ever more splitting rights and investing less in single titles. As budgets reduce, projects’ producers are forced to court ever more partners.
That often means partnering on productions. “We accustomed customers to enjoying high-quality series with large budgets. In the new context, it is increasingly difficult to continue in this vein if you don’t partner,” says Onza’s Carlos Garde.
Aiding this, Spain’s TV drama sector is still living a Golden Age. “Spanish TV fiction presence is on the rise, both on platforms and on international pay TV and free-to-air channels,” argues Atresmedia’s José Antonio Salso, who is moving buzz title “Nights in Tefía” at MipTV.
“There’s a large demand for Spanish-language content,...
Prioritizing bottom lines over market share, global platforms are ever more splitting rights and investing less in single titles. As budgets reduce, projects’ producers are forced to court ever more partners.
That often means partnering on productions. “We accustomed customers to enjoying high-quality series with large budgets. In the new context, it is increasingly difficult to continue in this vein if you don’t partner,” says Onza’s Carlos Garde.
Aiding this, Spain’s TV drama sector is still living a Golden Age. “Spanish TV fiction presence is on the rise, both on platforms and on international pay TV and free-to-air channels,” argues Atresmedia’s José Antonio Salso, who is moving buzz title “Nights in Tefía” at MipTV.
“There’s a large demand for Spanish-language content,...
- 4/14/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Coming Next from Spain, a showcase of five series, unspooled at Series Mania on March 21 just after a Spanish series, “Wrong Side of the Tracks” from Mediaset España and Alea Media, had scored 149.6 million watching hours in three weeks on Netflix for Seasons 1 and 2.
That platform connection and power of Spanish series threaded most of the series and much of the commentary at Tuesday’s Next from Spain, supported by Audiiovisual from Spain.
At least in terms of titles now ready to hit the market, there’s little sign as yet of platform pullback in Spain. Rather, it remains a ground zero in the streamer wars.
2023 will see the release of 70 new Spanish scripted series and 27 returning seasons of titles such as “Elite” “Rapa” “30 Coins” and “Veneno,” presenter Irene Jiménez, at Audiovisual 451, told a Next From Spain audience.
Of these new titles, 36% will be produced by linear TV broadcasters,...
That platform connection and power of Spanish series threaded most of the series and much of the commentary at Tuesday’s Next from Spain, supported by Audiiovisual from Spain.
At least in terms of titles now ready to hit the market, there’s little sign as yet of platform pullback in Spain. Rather, it remains a ground zero in the streamer wars.
2023 will see the release of 70 new Spanish scripted series and 27 returning seasons of titles such as “Elite” “Rapa” “30 Coins” and “Veneno,” presenter Irene Jiménez, at Audiovisual 451, told a Next From Spain audience.
Of these new titles, 36% will be produced by linear TV broadcasters,...
- 3/24/2023
- by John Hopewell and Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
The latest series from Alex de la Iglesia and “Veneno” creators Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo feature at a first-look Next from Spain Showcase which marks a massive step-up in the country’s presence at the Berlinale Series Market.
Running Feb. 20-22, the showcase also unveils “Rapa” Season 2, with its first season proving Movistar+’s biggest 2022 bow, and “This Is Not Sweden,” a pioneering Spanish co-production with Scandinavia and Germany.
The Showcase titles are joined by Isaki Lacuesta’s “The Chauffeur’s Son,” a Co-Pro Series project from “Elite’s” Zeta Studios, and “Selftape,” a Filmin Original from Filmax and a Series Market Screening.
Prior to 2023, Spanish titles only screened very occasionally at the market. This year’s splash , however, is entirely logical.
Thanks in part to a captive audience of 580 million Spanish speakers who are largely avid for melodrama-thrillers with a modern edge – think “La Casa de Papel,” “Who Killed Sara?...
Running Feb. 20-22, the showcase also unveils “Rapa” Season 2, with its first season proving Movistar+’s biggest 2022 bow, and “This Is Not Sweden,” a pioneering Spanish co-production with Scandinavia and Germany.
The Showcase titles are joined by Isaki Lacuesta’s “The Chauffeur’s Son,” a Co-Pro Series project from “Elite’s” Zeta Studios, and “Selftape,” a Filmin Original from Filmax and a Series Market Screening.
Prior to 2023, Spanish titles only screened very occasionally at the market. This year’s splash , however, is entirely logical.
Thanks in part to a captive audience of 580 million Spanish speakers who are largely avid for melodrama-thrillers with a modern edge – think “La Casa de Papel,” “Who Killed Sara?...
- 2/20/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
In its continued bid to ramp up its programming content, ViX Plus, the upcoming premium SVOD service from TelevisaUnivision, has formed a strategic alliance with Spain’s The Mediapro Studio, which will produce exclusive original content for the new Spanish-language streamer slated to launch in the second half of this year.
First out the gate are scripted series “Las Pelotaris” and the sports-themed docuseries, “La Sangre y la Gloria” (“The Blood and The Glory”).
Welcoming The Mediapro Studio as a crucial partner in its efforts to build “a service that will offer the best content in Spanish for our audience in the United States and Latin America,” Rodrigo Mazón, executive vice president and general manager of ViX Plus, said: “We are very excited to present the first original productions resulting from this strategic alliance and to be able to develop more stories together with the highest of production values.”
Commented Marta Ezpeleta,...
First out the gate are scripted series “Las Pelotaris” and the sports-themed docuseries, “La Sangre y la Gloria” (“The Blood and The Glory”).
Welcoming The Mediapro Studio as a crucial partner in its efforts to build “a service that will offer the best content in Spanish for our audience in the United States and Latin America,” Rodrigo Mazón, executive vice president and general manager of ViX Plus, said: “We are very excited to present the first original productions resulting from this strategic alliance and to be able to develop more stories together with the highest of production values.”
Commented Marta Ezpeleta,...
- 5/12/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s The Mediapro Studio has secured local adaptation rights to Belgian TV primetime hit “The Musical of Your Life,” which won the award for best factual entertainment format at this year’s MipTV International Format Awards.
The deal has been negotiated with Belgian international distribution company Be-Entertainment, which represents the format’s rights globally.
Created and produced by indie company Dedsit, the first season of the show recently aired on Belgium’s Play4 channel, scoring a spectacular 35.7 average market share. Dedsit is already working on a second season.
Set in a theatre, each episode of “The Musical of Your Life” pays tribute to a celebrity, someone beloved and admired by the entire country.
The celebrity is invited to the theater to join the host for a unique up-close and personal interview about all the key moments of his life. Meanwhile, five of the celebrity’s most memorable moments are...
The deal has been negotiated with Belgian international distribution company Be-Entertainment, which represents the format’s rights globally.
Created and produced by indie company Dedsit, the first season of the show recently aired on Belgium’s Play4 channel, scoring a spectacular 35.7 average market share. Dedsit is already working on a second season.
Set in a theatre, each episode of “The Musical of Your Life” pays tribute to a celebrity, someone beloved and admired by the entire country.
The celebrity is invited to the theater to join the host for a unique up-close and personal interview about all the key moments of his life. Meanwhile, five of the celebrity’s most memorable moments are...
- 4/6/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s TV industry will make history at Series Mania Forum 2022, with its biggest panel and sneak peek series presentation presence ever at a major TV market.
The Spanish conference attendance – alongside Finland’s panel spread – also weighs in as the biggest from any single country at the upcoming edition of the most important co-production event for scripted TV series in Europe.
Series Mania Forum runs on-site over March 22-24 in Lille, northern France, under the larger Series Mania Festival umbrella.
Organized by Icex Spain Trade & Investment, the country’s export and inward investment board, the Spanish pavilion at the Lille Grand Palais will host a record-breaking delegation for Spain of around 20 companies and more than 50 executives.
That’s a sign of just how much Series Mania has grown as an industry forum in the last few years, and of Spain’s ambition to ramp up exports of Spanish movies...
The Spanish conference attendance – alongside Finland’s panel spread – also weighs in as the biggest from any single country at the upcoming edition of the most important co-production event for scripted TV series in Europe.
Series Mania Forum runs on-site over March 22-24 in Lille, northern France, under the larger Series Mania Festival umbrella.
Organized by Icex Spain Trade & Investment, the country’s export and inward investment board, the Spanish pavilion at the Lille Grand Palais will host a record-breaking delegation for Spain of around 20 companies and more than 50 executives.
That’s a sign of just how much Series Mania has grown as an industry forum in the last few years, and of Spain’s ambition to ramp up exports of Spanish movies...
- 3/14/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Traditionally, Spanish broadcasters retained all rights, paying producers a percentage of the budget of their series, which prevented them from building catalogs of their own rights. Although at first, the arrival of SVOD platforms didn’t change their business relationship, the increasing demand for TV fiction and financial needs have forced an increased use of the co-production model.
“There is a lot of creativity and versatility in co-productions from Spain,” says Caroline Servy, managing director at The Wit.
Dipping its toe into the co-production arena in 2016 with “The Young Pope,” The Mediapro Studio, one of Europe’s super-indies, is expanding across Asia, Latin America and the U.S. markets, teaming with key broadcasters and platforms.
“Co-production has been the perfect model to hike the international reach of our productions. This way of working has become common among production companies, platforms and networks in recent years, and is in fact the...
“There is a lot of creativity and versatility in co-productions from Spain,” says Caroline Servy, managing director at The Wit.
Dipping its toe into the co-production arena in 2016 with “The Young Pope,” The Mediapro Studio, one of Europe’s super-indies, is expanding across Asia, Latin America and the U.S. markets, teaming with key broadcasters and platforms.
“Co-production has been the perfect model to hike the international reach of our productions. This way of working has become common among production companies, platforms and networks in recent years, and is in fact the...
- 1/20/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
One of the largest corporate presences at this year’s MipCancun, Spain’s Mediapro, for decades now a sports broker, services provider and producer of auteur films, from Woody Allen and Roman Polanski to Spain’s Isabel Coixet and Fernando León de Aranoa, has made a pair of high-profile executive moves within its flagship The Mediapro Studio production unit, naming Eugeni Sallent as the company’s new head of Latin America and Carolina Bilbao as VP of content and business development for the U.S.
Both appointments are representative of an ongoing push among many European “super indies” to grow their current operations on the other side of the Atlantic, a phenomenon manifesting itself in the open at this year’s MipCancun, where speakers from Gaumont, Banijay, Endemol Shine Boomdog, The Mediapro Studio, Rt and Turkey’s Intermedya will all participate.
Recent CEO at the Mediapro Group’s headquarters in Colombia and Italy,...
Both appointments are representative of an ongoing push among many European “super indies” to grow their current operations on the other side of the Atlantic, a phenomenon manifesting itself in the open at this year’s MipCancun, where speakers from Gaumont, Banijay, Endemol Shine Boomdog, The Mediapro Studio, Rt and Turkey’s Intermedya will all participate.
Recent CEO at the Mediapro Group’s headquarters in Colombia and Italy,...
- 11/17/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is replacing its East of the West sidebar, established in the 1990s and converted to a competition section in 2005, with the new Proxima Competition, dedicated to showcasing works from upcoming filmmakers and challenging new works from established auteurs. The aim of the new section is to “celebrate, together with the Crystal Globe Competition contemporary cinema with a slate of forward thinking and notable discoveries,” according to organizers.
“Proxima is replacing the popular East of the West competition which was established in the 1990s with the aim to aid filmmakers from the former Eastern Bloc to emerge out of the region’s politically indoctrinated isolation, an isolation that existed on both institutional and psychological levels,” Kviff artistic director Karel Och explained.
“Now that the festival is confident that the mission has been accomplished, it is crucial to consider and contextualize the region from a global perspective.
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is replacing its East of the West sidebar, established in the 1990s and converted to a competition section in 2005, with the new Proxima Competition, dedicated to showcasing works from upcoming filmmakers and challenging new works from established auteurs. The aim of the new section is to “celebrate, together with the Crystal Globe Competition contemporary cinema with a slate of forward thinking and notable discoveries,” according to organizers.
“Proxima is replacing the popular East of the West competition which was established in the 1990s with the aim to aid filmmakers from the former Eastern Bloc to emerge out of the region’s politically indoctrinated isolation, an isolation that existed on both institutional and psychological levels,” Kviff artistic director Karel Och explained.
“Now that the festival is confident that the mission has been accomplished, it is crucial to consider and contextualize the region from a global perspective.
- 11/16/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Official Competition,” Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s colorful film with Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. Represented in international markets by Protagonist, the film world premiered at Venice in competition and earned unanimous praise.
Written by Cohn and Duprat, the movie stars José Luis Gómez as an octogenarian millionaire pharmaceutical tycoon who decides to finance a great work of cinema after surveying his legacy and finding it lacking in prestige.
He purchases the rights to a Nobel Prize–winning novel about sibling rivalry and entrusts the property to enigmatic auteur Lola Cuevas (Cruz). A visionary conceptualist with a penchant for offscreen theatrics and micromanagement, Lola casts as her embattled co-leads a pair of veteran thespians who couldn’t be less alike: Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez) is a revered educator and legend of the stage much concerned with ethics and artistry, while Félix Rivero...
Written by Cohn and Duprat, the movie stars José Luis Gómez as an octogenarian millionaire pharmaceutical tycoon who decides to finance a great work of cinema after surveying his legacy and finding it lacking in prestige.
He purchases the rights to a Nobel Prize–winning novel about sibling rivalry and entrusts the property to enigmatic auteur Lola Cuevas (Cruz). A visionary conceptualist with a penchant for offscreen theatrics and micromanagement, Lola casts as her embattled co-leads a pair of veteran thespians who couldn’t be less alike: Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez) is a revered educator and legend of the stage much concerned with ethics and artistry, while Félix Rivero...
- 10/21/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy and K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Iberseries Platino Industria guests got a sneak peek at the first episode of “Codigo Implacable,” the first TV series in a production alliance between Sony Pictures TV (Spt) and The Mediapro Studio. Execs from both companies and some members of its stellar cast, led by Paulina Gaitan, presided over the press conference after its screening.
Speaking first, Mediapro sales head Marta Ezpeleta revealed that they had up to 68 fiction and entertainment projects in different phases of production, among which 20 are fiction series, across Spain and Latin America.
“For those of us in development and production, we have to take advantage of these incredible times,” said Spt exec Ana Bond who cited the production boom high demand for – and acceptance of – premium Latino content.
Serving as showrunner and director of some episodes was New York-born Venezuelan filmmaker Joel Novoa, whose credits include the series “Arrow” for WB, “Walker for CBS, “Cobra...
Speaking first, Mediapro sales head Marta Ezpeleta revealed that they had up to 68 fiction and entertainment projects in different phases of production, among which 20 are fiction series, across Spain and Latin America.
“For those of us in development and production, we have to take advantage of these incredible times,” said Spt exec Ana Bond who cited the production boom high demand for – and acceptance of – premium Latino content.
Serving as showrunner and director of some episodes was New York-born Venezuelan filmmaker Joel Novoa, whose credits include the series “Arrow” for WB, “Walker for CBS, “Cobra...
- 9/29/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Following a tussle for rights in the territory, Protagonist Pictures has closed a French all-rights deal with Wild Bunch for well-received comedy Official Competition, starring Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Oscar Martínez.
The Spanish-language film, produced by MediaPro Studio, recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
In Official Competition, Cruz plays renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas, who is recruited by a billionaire entrepreneur who impulsively decides to create an iconic movie. Banderas will star as Hollywood heartthrob Félix Rivero, and joining them is Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, who plays radical theatre actor Iván Torres.
Pic is directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat from a script they wrote with Andrés Duprat.
The film has also booked a Special Presentations berth at the Toronto International Film Festival and will open this year’s Perlak Section at the upcoming San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The Spanish-language film, produced by MediaPro Studio, recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
In Official Competition, Cruz plays renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas, who is recruited by a billionaire entrepreneur who impulsively decides to create an iconic movie. Banderas will star as Hollywood heartthrob Félix Rivero, and joining them is Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, who plays radical theatre actor Iván Torres.
Pic is directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat from a script they wrote with Andrés Duprat.
The film has also booked a Special Presentations berth at the Toronto International Film Festival and will open this year’s Perlak Section at the upcoming San Sebastian International Film Festival.
- 9/13/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
In 2019, Netflix produced more hours of original productions in Spain (163) than any other country outside the U.S., aside from South Korea (238), but on a par with the U.K. (160), according to an analysis from Omdia.
Once better known for its movie auteurs, Spain is fast becoming a production center as its drama series, led by “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”), reach global audiences.
With vaccination rates now hitting 400,000 jabs a day, on Thursday, four senior industry executives debated at a Spain Film Commission panel about how to attract big shoots again to Spain. Conversation turned very often to the future of series productions in Spain as it becomes one of the most exciting growth sectors in the world. Here are the six biggest takeaways:
The Sector’s on a Roll
Last May, Spain’s government raised tax rebate caps on big foreign shoots from $3.28 million to $10.8 million, and...
Once better known for its movie auteurs, Spain is fast becoming a production center as its drama series, led by “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”), reach global audiences.
With vaccination rates now hitting 400,000 jabs a day, on Thursday, four senior industry executives debated at a Spain Film Commission panel about how to attract big shoots again to Spain. Conversation turned very often to the future of series productions in Spain as it becomes one of the most exciting growth sectors in the world. Here are the six biggest takeaways:
The Sector’s on a Roll
Last May, Spain’s government raised tax rebate caps on big foreign shoots from $3.28 million to $10.8 million, and...
- 4/30/2021
- by John Hopewell and Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
MipTV 2021, running April 12-16, with a packed prologue on April 9, including MipDrama, will begin to wind down Wednesday night after its second big keynote, delivered by American star Marc Anthony.
Suffering its second-year running as a virtual event, Reed Midem’s official market remains a diminished affair. This year’s edition also, however, underscored the vibrancy of the international TV industry, galvanized by a huge new demand for higher-end content.
Following are six takeaways from 2021’s event:
David Beckham
No guessing MipTV’s biggest star to date this year: Former Manchester United and England soccer poster boy David Beckham, who delivered a pre-recorded MipTV keynote on Tuesday to talk up his new production company, Studio 99. In a new streaming age, Beckham ticks all the right boxes: He’s a huge global IP and social media phenom with 65.5 million followers on Instagram, soccer being the most popular sport in the world.
Suffering its second-year running as a virtual event, Reed Midem’s official market remains a diminished affair. This year’s edition also, however, underscored the vibrancy of the international TV industry, galvanized by a huge new demand for higher-end content.
Following are six takeaways from 2021’s event:
David Beckham
No guessing MipTV’s biggest star to date this year: Former Manchester United and England soccer poster boy David Beckham, who delivered a pre-recorded MipTV keynote on Tuesday to talk up his new production company, Studio 99. In a new streaming age, Beckham ticks all the right boxes: He’s a huge global IP and social media phenom with 65.5 million followers on Instagram, soccer being the most popular sport in the world.
- 4/14/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Best known is its early decades as a sports broker, services provider and producer of auteur films, from Woody Allen and Roman Polanski to Spain’s Isabel Coixet and Fernando Aranoa, few companies have powered so fast and bullishly into high-end drama series production than Spain’s Mediapro.
That drive has seen The Mediapro Studio launch in 2919 as one of Spain’s preeminent production forces, and then build even more with new titles set up with Paramount Plus, Disney Plus (“Siempre Fui Yo”), Amazon, Warner Media (“Las Bravas”) and Netflix (“Magic For Humans Spain”).
Yet Tms is eager to own IP, still with relations with lineal players and completed 52 productions between March 2020 and January 2021, despite pandemic. So it runs a powerful and ever-growing sales operation, The Mediapro Studio Distribution. Variety chatted to Marta Ezpeleta, its first director appointed in 2019:
1.Selling a Gamut of Shows from A-z
Tmsd’s top...
That drive has seen The Mediapro Studio launch in 2919 as one of Spain’s preeminent production forces, and then build even more with new titles set up with Paramount Plus, Disney Plus (“Siempre Fui Yo”), Amazon, Warner Media (“Las Bravas”) and Netflix (“Magic For Humans Spain”).
Yet Tms is eager to own IP, still with relations with lineal players and completed 52 productions between March 2020 and January 2021, despite pandemic. So it runs a powerful and ever-growing sales operation, The Mediapro Studio Distribution. Variety chatted to Marta Ezpeleta, its first director appointed in 2019:
1.Selling a Gamut of Shows from A-z
Tmsd’s top...
- 4/13/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Media Musketeers has boarded a pair of high-profile drama series, including “Pulse,” a survival thriller from The Mediapro Studio, and “Un Prophete,” the series adaptation of Jacques Audiard’s 2009 film that won Cannes’ Grand Jury Prize and a BAFTA, and earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.
Media Musketeers is set to co-produce “Un Prophete” with Paris-based Cpb Films. The show is now in development and is expected to start production in France during the second half of 2021.
The French-language series is reuniting the Cesar-winning writing team behind the critically acclaimed movie, notably Abdel Raouf, Nicolas Peufaillit, in addition to its producer, Marco Cherqui.
“I always thought the TV version of ‘Un Prophète’ should pick up the story of its hero Malik’s life after the end of the film. But what is interesting 12 years on is to ask how relevant the story is in contemporary France,” said Cherqui, who is...
Media Musketeers is set to co-produce “Un Prophete” with Paris-based Cpb Films. The show is now in development and is expected to start production in France during the second half of 2021.
The French-language series is reuniting the Cesar-winning writing team behind the critically acclaimed movie, notably Abdel Raouf, Nicolas Peufaillit, in addition to its producer, Marco Cherqui.
“I always thought the TV version of ‘Un Prophète’ should pick up the story of its hero Malik’s life after the end of the film. But what is interesting 12 years on is to ask how relevant the story is in contemporary France,” said Cherqui, who is...
- 3/12/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — Movistar Plus and The Mediapro Studio have greenlit development on Season 2 of “Nasdrovia,” an upcoming comedy-drama tracking an ex-couple’s excruciating decent into hell, as they fall into the maws of the Russian mob.
Season 2 is being written by the show’s creators, Sergio Sarra, Miguel Esteban and Luismi Perez, and its showrunnner, Marc Vigil.
“One of the things which we can certainly do in these extraordinary circumstances is develop new shows,” Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus dictator of original fiction, said at an online presentation by Movistar Plus and The Mediapro Studio on Wednesday.
The Mediapro Studio Distribution handles international sales, with “Nasdrovia” being brought onto the international market via selection for MipTV’s online Drama Buyers Summit, held from late March, and now April 22’s presentation by Corral, showrunner Marc Vigil, and The Mediapro Studio Distribution head Marta Ezpeleta.
Sharply written with a clipped, rhythmic delivery of dialog...
Season 2 is being written by the show’s creators, Sergio Sarra, Miguel Esteban and Luismi Perez, and its showrunnner, Marc Vigil.
“One of the things which we can certainly do in these extraordinary circumstances is develop new shows,” Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus dictator of original fiction, said at an online presentation by Movistar Plus and The Mediapro Studio on Wednesday.
The Mediapro Studio Distribution handles international sales, with “Nasdrovia” being brought onto the international market via selection for MipTV’s online Drama Buyers Summit, held from late March, and now April 22’s presentation by Corral, showrunner Marc Vigil, and The Mediapro Studio Distribution head Marta Ezpeleta.
Sharply written with a clipped, rhythmic delivery of dialog...
- 4/22/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — Already producing 34 scripted series, The Mediapro Studio is now entering second-phase growth, naming Laura Fernández Espeso to the newly-created post of corporate director and expanding other senior management positions to meet the market needs of one of the fastest-expanding scripted series producers in Europe.
Announcement of the appointments comes as The Mediapro Studio prepares to unleash on Mipcom banner series “The Head,” one of the biggest ever to come out of Spain, an English-language Antarctic thriller produced with Hulu Japan and HBO Asia and a sign of the ambition the Studio aims to achieve in its flagship titles.
Also coming up to completion are woman’s reawakening story “Paradise,” also a Finnish-Spanish crime thriller; coming of age story “Paraíso,” with Movistar+; Mexican women’s soccer team drama “Las Bravas,” the first scripted title announced in an alliance with Turner Latin America, and social comedy “Whatever,” made for HBO España.
Announcement of the appointments comes as The Mediapro Studio prepares to unleash on Mipcom banner series “The Head,” one of the biggest ever to come out of Spain, an English-language Antarctic thriller produced with Hulu Japan and HBO Asia and a sign of the ambition the Studio aims to achieve in its flagship titles.
Also coming up to completion are woman’s reawakening story “Paradise,” also a Finnish-Spanish crime thriller; coming of age story “Paraíso,” with Movistar+; Mexican women’s soccer team drama “Las Bravas,” the first scripted title announced in an alliance with Turner Latin America, and social comedy “Whatever,” made for HBO España.
- 10/9/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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
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