The MediaPro Studio will look to invest in literary and library program rights in the U.S., the Spanish company’s boss told delegate here at Mipcom Cannes today, as it unveiled several new projects during a Mipcom Cannes keynote.
Laura Fernández Espeso announced projects such as including season 3 of thriller drama The Head and a project with British director Mike Leigh in post-production, but also revealed plans in the English-language U.S. market and talked up growth opportunities.
“For the American market, we’re going to be focused on books, library acquisitions and finished content because we are receiving a lot if proposals that are super high quality,” she said. “Our rights team are open be part of those projects, and they are going to help us to diversify.”
An example is survival thriller Hunting Ana Bravo, which Erik Barmack’s LA-based Wild Sheep Content is producing. Barcelona-based production...
Laura Fernández Espeso announced projects such as including season 3 of thriller drama The Head and a project with British director Mike Leigh in post-production, but also revealed plans in the English-language U.S. market and talked up growth opportunities.
“For the American market, we’re going to be focused on books, library acquisitions and finished content because we are receiving a lot if proposals that are super high quality,” she said. “Our rights team are open be part of those projects, and they are going to help us to diversify.”
An example is survival thriller Hunting Ana Bravo, which Erik Barmack’s LA-based Wild Sheep Content is producing. Barcelona-based production...
- 10/17/2023
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
The Mediapro Studio will shoot from November Season 3 of “The Head,” its biggest international hit, filming in the Sahara Desert with John Lynch (“The Fall”) and Katharine O’Donnelly (“Mary Queen of Scots), attached once more to star.
Olivia Morris also returns to her role as Rachel Russo, the morally conscionable daughter of ambition-crazed biologist Arthur Wilde, played by Lynch.
“The Head” Season 1 took place at an Antarctic research station cut off in winter, Season 2 on a hulking freighter at mid-Pacific’s Point Nemo, the most distant place on earth from nearest land.
“The locations for this series have been a fundamental part of the show itself, always in an inaccessible place,” Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, told Variety before talking at a Mipcom Media Mastermind Keynote on Tuesday.
“This time we’ll be shooting in the desert: ‘The Head 3’ will take place in an unknown place in the Sahara desert,...
Olivia Morris also returns to her role as Rachel Russo, the morally conscionable daughter of ambition-crazed biologist Arthur Wilde, played by Lynch.
“The Head” Season 1 took place at an Antarctic research station cut off in winter, Season 2 on a hulking freighter at mid-Pacific’s Point Nemo, the most distant place on earth from nearest land.
“The locations for this series have been a fundamental part of the show itself, always in an inaccessible place,” Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, told Variety before talking at a Mipcom Media Mastermind Keynote on Tuesday.
“This time we’ll be shooting in the desert: ‘The Head 3’ will take place in an unknown place in the Sahara desert,...
- 10/17/2023
- by John Hopewell and Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
When filmmaker Maggie Betts premiered her feature debut, the stunning period piece “Novitiate,” at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the drama starring Margaret Qualley as a young nun took a path many other films had already followed. It showed to strong reviews (including from this writer), earned Betts a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Director, was bought at the festival by Sony Pictures Classics for an estimated 7-digit price, got a theatrical release in the heat of the fall season, and even picked up some awards buzz for co-star Melissa Leo.
These days, that once-traditional route is a vestige of the past, as the theatrical landscape continues to shift and festival buys grow slimmer. But while Betts readily admits she’s had to change her ambitions to suit the ecosystem, that hasn’t diminished her work. It has, however, altered it a bit. For one thing, it took her six years...
These days, that once-traditional route is a vestige of the past, as the theatrical landscape continues to shift and festival buys grow slimmer. But while Betts readily admits she’s had to change her ambitions to suit the ecosystem, that hasn’t diminished her work. It has, however, altered it a bit. For one thing, it took her six years...
- 10/10/2023
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Isabel Coixet recounts that she vowed to never to do another literary adaptation after her 2017 English-language feature The Bookshop based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed 1978 novel of the same name.
Then the Spanish director read compatriot writer Sara Mesa’s dark 2021 novel Un Amor at the tail-end of the pandemic.
The unsettling work follows troubled translator Nat who quits life in the city for a dilapidated, leaky house in a remote village in Spain’s depopulated rural interior.
It is not exactly clear what prompted the move but she appears to be suffering from some sort of vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder connected to the harrowing refugee accounts she translates for her job.
A figure of curiosity as a lone woman, Nat lives as an outsider and then embarks on an unexpected and inexplicable passionate affair with a local social outcast.
“Sara Mesa is one of the most powerful voices in young Spanish literature.
Then the Spanish director read compatriot writer Sara Mesa’s dark 2021 novel Un Amor at the tail-end of the pandemic.
The unsettling work follows troubled translator Nat who quits life in the city for a dilapidated, leaky house in a remote village in Spain’s depopulated rural interior.
It is not exactly clear what prompted the move but she appears to be suffering from some sort of vicarious post-traumatic stress disorder connected to the harrowing refugee accounts she translates for her job.
A figure of curiosity as a lone woman, Nat lives as an outsider and then embarks on an unexpected and inexplicable passionate affair with a local social outcast.
“Sara Mesa is one of the most powerful voices in young Spanish literature.
- 9/26/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Penélope Cruz is taking on an Elena Ferrante adaptation.
IndieWire can confirm the “Ferrari” actress is reuniting with “Elegy” director Isabel Coixet for the adaptation of Ferrante’s 2002 “The Days of Abandonment,” which followed Olga, an Italian woman, who loses her grasp on reality after her husband of 15 years abruptly leaves her for another woman.
The big screen adaptation will instead be set in America, as Variety reported, with the script penned by Laurence Coriat (“Summer in Genoa”). “The Days of Abandonment” will be produced by Lotus, a unit of Raffaella and Andrea Leone’s Leone Film Group, and Cruz’s production banner Moonlyon. Cruz’s brother Edu Cruz will also produce along with Marco Perego through their Nimoa Entertainment company.
Director Coixet has recently helmed “Un Amor,” “My Life Without Me,” and “The Secret Life of Words.”
Author Ferrante’s novels have been adapted for the big and small screens,...
IndieWire can confirm the “Ferrari” actress is reuniting with “Elegy” director Isabel Coixet for the adaptation of Ferrante’s 2002 “The Days of Abandonment,” which followed Olga, an Italian woman, who loses her grasp on reality after her husband of 15 years abruptly leaves her for another woman.
The big screen adaptation will instead be set in America, as Variety reported, with the script penned by Laurence Coriat (“Summer in Genoa”). “The Days of Abandonment” will be produced by Lotus, a unit of Raffaella and Andrea Leone’s Leone Film Group, and Cruz’s production banner Moonlyon. Cruz’s brother Edu Cruz will also produce along with Marco Perego through their Nimoa Entertainment company.
Director Coixet has recently helmed “Un Amor,” “My Life Without Me,” and “The Secret Life of Words.”
Author Ferrante’s novels have been adapted for the big and small screens,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Penélope Cruz is set to star as Olga, a writer forced to give up her artistic ambitions when her husband suddenly leaves her and their two young daughters, in Isabel Coixet’s English-language adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s “The Days of Abandonment.”
The deal to make the film, which is now in development, was signed before the SAG-AFTRA strike. While Cruz did not attend the Venice Film Festival, she elicited raves from critics on the Lido for her performance in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” as the angry, lonely, grief-ravaged Laura Ferrari, emotionally estranged from her husband Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver).
“The Days of Abandonment,” which will transpose the novel’s original Italian setting to America, reunites the two top Spanish talents following their collaboration on another U.S.-set film, the 2008 drama “Elegy” an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal,” about an affair between a...
The deal to make the film, which is now in development, was signed before the SAG-AFTRA strike. While Cruz did not attend the Venice Film Festival, she elicited raves from critics on the Lido for her performance in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” as the angry, lonely, grief-ravaged Laura Ferrari, emotionally estranged from her husband Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver).
“The Days of Abandonment,” which will transpose the novel’s original Italian setting to America, reunites the two top Spanish talents following their collaboration on another U.S.-set film, the 2008 drama “Elegy” an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal,” about an affair between a...
- 9/6/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
A few years back, when Maggie Gyllenhaal was making The Kindergarten Teacher with Pie Films’ producing partners Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman-Keren, the idea arose that Gyllenhaal herself should direct a project. Securing the rights to Elena Ferrante’s novel, The Lost Daughter, Gyllenhaal re-teamed with Pie Films, crafted her first feature script and cast Olivia Colman as Leda, a middle-aged woman whose past haunts her when she meets a young woman on vacation. Amid a Covid-driven location switch to Greece and quarantine with her film-family, Gyllenhaal crafted a feature filled with eviscerating but necessary truths about motherhood and all its complexity.
Deadline: How did you and Talia and Osnat start talking about you directing on a project together?
Maggie Gyllenhaal: It’s funny. Looking back on it now, after having made this film, which I love, it’s clear to me that I always wanted… well, that I...
Deadline: How did you and Talia and Osnat start talking about you directing on a project together?
Maggie Gyllenhaal: It’s funny. Looking back on it now, after having made this film, which I love, it’s clear to me that I always wanted… well, that I...
- 1/23/2022
- by Antonia Blyth
- Deadline Film + TV
It took playing a woman who is empowered by becoming a film director in HBO series “The Deuce” for actress Maggie Gyllenhaal to imagine becoming one herself. As soon as she did, after binging the books of Elena Ferrante, from “My Brilliant Friend” to “The Days of Abandonment,” Gyllenhaal was inspired to take the plunge. Three years ago, on the verge of her 40th birthday, Gyllenhaal first wrote to Ferrante, asking the Italian author (whose identity is protected by her publisher) to let her option her 2006 novel “The Lost Daughter” for the movies. After a few email exchanges, the writer said yes. But her contract with Gyllenhaal was void, she told the actress, if she didn’t direct the feature herself. (Ferrante explained why in The Guardian.)
Gyllenhaal eventually obtained the author’s blessing on her script — which often departs from the original —and cast Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite...
Gyllenhaal eventually obtained the author’s blessing on her script — which often departs from the original —and cast Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite...
- 12/6/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The sequel to Netflix’s action film “Extraction” starring Chris Hemsworth is moving its production out of Australia as a result of ongoing lockdowns in Sydney due to Covid-19.
An individual close to the production told TheWrap that the decision to move filming of the “Extraction” sequel out of the country was not made lightly. But due to health restrictions in the region and production timelines, the film unfortunately needs to find a new location. The news was first confirmed locally by the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Extraction 2” is also meant to now film in Prague in the Czech Republic, a representative with the Czech Film Commission told TheWrap.
Hemsworth is also expected to be available in Australia this November for filming on “Furiosa,” George Miller’s prequel follow-up to 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Australia in mid-August had its deadliest day from Covid-19 yet, as deaths have now pushed...
An individual close to the production told TheWrap that the decision to move filming of the “Extraction” sequel out of the country was not made lightly. But due to health restrictions in the region and production timelines, the film unfortunately needs to find a new location. The news was first confirmed locally by the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Extraction 2” is also meant to now film in Prague in the Czech Republic, a representative with the Czech Film Commission told TheWrap.
Hemsworth is also expected to be available in Australia this November for filming on “Furiosa,” George Miller’s prequel follow-up to 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
Australia in mid-August had its deadliest day from Covid-19 yet, as deaths have now pushed...
- 8/31/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
“Extraction 2,” the planned sequel to one of Netflix’s most successful original movies, will now shoot in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. The Chris Hemsworth-starring actioner had been set to lens in Australia.
Crew who had already begun preparations in New South Wales, Australia were informed on Friday by Netflix and the Russo brothers’ Agbo production company, sources told Variety. Sources close Netflix say the decision to move was motivated by Covid and shutdown concerns.
The sequel was written by Joe Russo and produced by Joe and Anthony Russo.
Other sources put the move into a wider context, explaining that Hemsworth’s tight schedule and the growing uncertainties associated with shooting in Australia make relocation a safe choice. Hemsworth is scheduled to be back in Australia by November or December to start pre-production of Mad Max franchise movie “Furiosa.”
For about a year starting in mid-2020, Australia was...
Crew who had already begun preparations in New South Wales, Australia were informed on Friday by Netflix and the Russo brothers’ Agbo production company, sources told Variety. Sources close Netflix say the decision to move was motivated by Covid and shutdown concerns.
The sequel was written by Joe Russo and produced by Joe and Anthony Russo.
Other sources put the move into a wider context, explaining that Hemsworth’s tight schedule and the growing uncertainties associated with shooting in Australia make relocation a safe choice. Hemsworth is scheduled to be back in Australia by November or December to start pre-production of Mad Max franchise movie “Furiosa.”
For about a year starting in mid-2020, Australia was...
- 8/31/2021
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The Nsw screen sector has been dealt a double blow as a result of Covid, with production on Russell Crowe’s thriller Poker Face shut down as a result of a confirmed case, while a Netflix project starring Chris Hemsworth that planned to shoot in the state has relocated to Europe.
In a series of tweets published on Tuesday, Crowe – who directs and stars in the high stakes thriller – confirmed a positive Covid case amongst the crew, as well as a second possible positive case under investigation.
“Unfortunately 6 days from the end of our shoot on Poker Face we have had a confirmed positive Covid case amongst our crew and a second possible positive under further investigation by our Poker Face Covid team and Nsw Health,” he wrote.
“For the safety of cast and crew and the wider community, the production has been immediately paused and everyone instructed to isolate...
In a series of tweets published on Tuesday, Crowe – who directs and stars in the high stakes thriller – confirmed a positive Covid case amongst the crew, as well as a second possible positive case under investigation.
“Unfortunately 6 days from the end of our shoot on Poker Face we have had a confirmed positive Covid case amongst our crew and a second possible positive under further investigation by our Poker Face Covid team and Nsw Health,” he wrote.
“For the safety of cast and crew and the wider community, the production has been immediately paused and everyone instructed to isolate...
- 8/31/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Netflix has announced a December theatrical and streaming release for Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feature directorial debut “The Lost Daughter,” adapted from the Elena Ferrante novel of the same name. The movie will be having its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it will debut in competition alongside the likes of Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog,” and Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God.” The latter two titles are also Netflix releases.
The official synopsis for “The Lost Daughter” from Netflix reads: “Alone on a seaside vacation, Leda (Olivia Colman) becomes consumed with a young mother and daughter as she watches them on the beach. Unnerved by their compelling relationship, (and their raucous and menacing extended family), Leda is overwhelmed by her own memories of the terror, confusion and intensity of early motherhood. An impulsive act shocks Leda into the strange and...
The official synopsis for “The Lost Daughter” from Netflix reads: “Alone on a seaside vacation, Leda (Olivia Colman) becomes consumed with a young mother and daughter as she watches them on the beach. Unnerved by their compelling relationship, (and their raucous and menacing extended family), Leda is overwhelmed by her own memories of the terror, confusion and intensity of early motherhood. An impulsive act shocks Leda into the strange and...
- 8/18/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Rome-based sales company Adriana Chiesa Enterprises (Ace) will launch sales on Roberto Faenza’s English-language Anita B., about a young Auschwitz survivor trying to re-build her life after the war, at the Efm.
Eline Powell, who got her big screen break in Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet, plays Anita opposite Robert Sheehan, as a young man with whom she embarks on a passionate affair.
Rising star Sheehan, best known for his roles in TV series Misfits and fantasy feature The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, is also set to star in Tiago Mesquita’s Caesar and Gren Wells’ The World Within this year.
Life is Beautiful producer Elda Ferri of Jean Vigo Italia and Luigi Musini of Cinema Undici co-produced the film.
Ace is handling all international rights except for the Us. The picture’s Us co-producer Ron Stein of Four of a Kind Productions is handling North America rights. Stein also co-produced Faenza’s last film Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You...
Eline Powell, who got her big screen break in Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet, plays Anita opposite Robert Sheehan, as a young man with whom she embarks on a passionate affair.
Rising star Sheehan, best known for his roles in TV series Misfits and fantasy feature The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, is also set to star in Tiago Mesquita’s Caesar and Gren Wells’ The World Within this year.
Life is Beautiful producer Elda Ferri of Jean Vigo Italia and Luigi Musini of Cinema Undici co-produced the film.
Ace is handling all international rights except for the Us. The picture’s Us co-producer Ron Stein of Four of a Kind Productions is handling North America rights. Stein also co-produced Faenza’s last film Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You...
- 1/28/2014
- ScreenDaily
VENICE, Italy -- Italian independent producer Domenico Procacci took aim at Venice International Film Festival artistic director Marco Muller for ignoring his mandate to discover first-time directors in his selection process. Procacci, in town with first-time helmer Fausto Paravidino's Texas, which is screening in the Venice Horizons section, openly questioned at a news conference why his film was not selected to compete for the Golden Lion. "For Muller, in fact, as he declared to the press, the festival should photograph the present and doesn't have to discover new talent. I do not share this view," said Procacci, who noted that the three Italian films in competition -- Roberto Faenza's I Giorni dell'Abbandono, Cristina Comencini's La Bestia Nel Cuore and Pupi Avati's La Seconda Notte di Nozze -- are all from established directors.
VENICE -- James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro and the Coen Brothers waltzed their way onto the Lido Tuesday for the premiere of the bawdy musical Romance & Cigarettes. Director Turturro's movie was the second U.S. title to unspool here in competition. One of the largest entourages to arrive yet provided ample opportunity for a packed news conference to quiz the filmmaker and stars. But the event was largely dominated by questions fired to Sarandon about her views on Hollywood and politics. Sarandon joshed that the only way to end your career in Hollywood was to get "old and fat." She said Hollywood wasn't really a "political entity that is going to evolve in some way." She also said that it was a pity that men got paid more than women to be in movies but added that many of the roles did not appeal to her. The movie script, described by producers Joel and Ethan Coen as "sufficiently demented" to bring them on board, trades in foulmouthed dialogue and lewd sexual references. "Dirty language of a certain kind is a certain art and everything can't be sweet," said Turturro, who penned the project in addition to directing it. "We made a list of interesting expressions and as long as it is humorous it is fun." Prior to the news conference, a war of words broke out between Venice festival organizers and a major Italian newswire service. Organizers said Italy's second-largest wire service, Adnkronos, had misrepresented the tone and content of festival coverage from outlets including The Hollywood Reporter. Adnkronos ran an article -- picked up by the Venice daily Il Gazzettino -- which said that U.S. press coverage had slammed the festival organization and the movies so far. But organizers fired back at the wire service, saying in a press statement that the "tone and comments" of coverage "were in fact positive." As the war of words broke out, Venice entered the home stretch and Italian entries pushed to the fore. Tuesday saw the first Italian movie unspool in competition as Roberto Faenza's I Giorni dell'Abbandono hit the screen. Both Cristina Comencini's La Bestia Nel Cuore and Pupi Avati's La Seconda Notte di Nozze also will vie for the jury's attention as Saturday's awards ceremony approaches.
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