Banijay Iberia, Spain’s LaLiga Team to Launch LaLiga Studios

Jet2 has warned holidaymakers travelling to two Spanish destinations that they may face some “disruption” due to walkouts by ground handling staff. Throughout March and into April staff with ground handler Swissport will go on strike several days a week at Barcelona and Lanzarote airports.

Brits usually head to Spain for sunshine and sandy beaches, yet the country has been hit by heavy snow showers as Storm Juliette batters parts o f the country. Temperatures have dropped to as low as -16C in Spain while the Balearic island of Majorca has been especially hard hit.

Many Brits will already be planning their summer getaways, but travel expert Simon Calder has shared a useful tip to know when booking your trip, which could help holidaymakers save up to £1,000 for a family of four. Simon appeared on ITV’s Lorraine where he issued guidance as part of his summer holiday clinic.

EXCLUSIVE: For Banijay Asia’s Deepak Dhar, 2023 is shaping up to be one of the busiest in a three-decade career in Indian media. Not only has he just launched The Night Manager India on Disney+ Hotstar and is delivering several scripted and unscripted shows, he is also working to position India has Banijay’s Asian production hub.

Emiliano De Pablos Boston-based sales agent 34T has picked up international sales rights to Spanish writer-director Ana Ortiz’s feature debut, psychological thriller “El claro de las luciérnagas” (“Firefly Glades”). Produced by Sergy Moreno at Madrid’s White Leaf Producciones, the film is structured as a Spanish regional co-production, teaming with Magnética Cine’s María Barroso in Andalusia and Joaquín Calderón at Navarra-based Melitón Films. “Firefly Glades” figures among the 22 projects selected at Málaga’s 2023 Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (MAFF), which runs March 13-16 as part of Málaga Festival’s growing Mafiz industry area.

Pet Shop Boys‘ Neil Tennant wrote and sent to the late Janice Long in the ’80s has been discovered at a record shop in Altrincham, Trafford.As BBC News reports, the frontman thanked the Radio 1 DJ for playing the synth-pop duo’s debut single ‘West End Girls’ in the note, which was found in a 12-inch vinyl edition of the track.The letter is dated “12 April, 1984” – three days after the song was released.Tennant, who worked as a journalist at Smash Hits at the time, provided some information on how he and bandmate Chris Lowe had recorded ‘West End Girls’ with producer Bobby Orlando after meeting him in New York.“We’ve now recorded over half an album and are due to go back to New York quite soon to finish it,” he continued in the unearthed letter.“Anyway, hope you like the 12″ I’ve enclosed and thanks for playing ‘West End Girls’ on Thursday. As far as I’m concerned, you’re now an honorary Pet Shop Girl!” See an image in the tweet below.A letter written by Pet Shop Boys star Neil Tennant, thanking Radio 1's Janice Long for playing the band's debut single (“West End Girls”) in 1984.

Manchester street food market Grub has said it’s ‘absolutely gutted’ after the cancellation of a month of planned food and culture events due to happen next month. ‘Grub & Friends’ was set to take place all through April at the Kampus development.

EXCLUSIVE: Following bidding wars in multiple territories, A24 has sold Past Lives, probably the year’s most critically acclaimed new film, to a raft of key territories.

EXCLUSIVE: Love Island distributor ITV Studios has hired a Disney sales exec on the eve of the London TV Screenings.

Latin Grammys will be hosted out of the United States for the first time in history. After years of discussion, it appears like the awards show will take place in November in Spain.Marc Anthony reacted when a fan mentioned his ex-wife, Jennifer LopezRosalia looks stunning in a new revealing photoThe announcement was made by Juan Manuel Moreno, the president of the regional government of Andalusia, who was joined by the CEO of the Latin Grammys, Manuel Abud.

A recent episode of daytime TV favourite A Place In The Sun contained a stark warning for anyone in the UK wishing to move to Spain.

Emiliano De Pablos Buenos Aires-based production outfit Mil Monos is teaming with writer-director Pablo Agüero (“Primera nieve,” “Akelarre”) and writer-creator Nicolás Britos (“Limbo,” “Pibas en orsai”) to develop dystopian coming-of-age thriller series project “Decibel.” Produced by Mil Monos’ Maximiliano Monzón, “Decibel” is currently at pilot script stage, and a shoot start is planned by January 2024, tentatively in Argentina. Written by Britos, the eight-episode, half-hour thriller follows five deaf teenagers born in a mountainous region. When The Hum, a sound that transforms every person who can hear it into a frenzied killer, is unleashed, their deafness makes them immune.

Liza Foreman In 1995, Alex de la Iglesia directed his second feature, “The Day of the Beast,” which marked a milestone in Spanish cinema, yoking full-on U.S. genre tropes – a bloody against-the-clock search for an Antichrist – with a bathetic but very grounded Spanish reality, featuring a downbeat boarding house, a local metalhead and the tawdry star of an occult-themed trash TV show.  The film opened the floodgates for other directors, weened on VHS binging, to mix U.S. and Spanish realities. Now nearly 30 years later, De la Iglesia is at it again. A showreel of movies and series made by Pokeepsie Films, the shingle he founded with Carolina Bang in 2009, dazzled at a Next from Spain showcase panel on Monday at Berlinale Series Market. Standouts included the sheer visual boldness of excerpts, their pop out tones, – such as in Eduardo Casanova’s lush pink in “La Pietá” – or mixture of gore, high-production values and comedy, as in HBO Max series “30 Coins.”

Liza Foreman ZDF Studios has signed a deal to distribute the second season of the remake of the iconic Spanish horror series “Stories to Stay Awake” (“Historias Para No Dormir”). The series is a reboot of the classic series created by Spain’s Chicho Ibáñez Serrador in the 1960s which proved a milestone in Spanish horror, introducing Spain to classic tales from Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe,   The deal sees ZDF Studios taking distribution rights to “Stories” in all territories outside Spain, Portugal, Italy and Latin America, which will be handled by Paramount Global Content Distribution. ZDF operated in the same capacity for the first season.

Emiliano De Pablos Madrid-based Aquí y Allí Films, one of Spain’s most successful auteur movie production houses, is joining forces with popular Spanish actor turned writer-director Daniel Guzmán (“Nothing in Return,” “Canallas”) to produce drama thriller “La deuda.” Backed by Spain’s pay TV giant Movistar+ and public broadcaster RTVE, “La deuda” will be produced by Aquí y Allí’s Pedro Hernández and Guzmán at El Niño Producciones. The film is scheduled to roll in Madrid by the fall. Written by Guzmán, “La deuda” tells the story of Lucas, a 37-year-old man and the 86 year-old woman Antonia, who live together in a city too big to be alone. Lucas is looking for a job but the job seems not to be looking for him.

Emiliano De Pablos Spanish TV production house Mediacrest is joining forces with Helsinki-based outfit ReelMedia and Finnish public broadcaster YLE to develop climate change thriller series project “17kHz.” The co-production model resulting from the “17kHz” development deal will be one focus at the showcase “Spanish Fiction Contents: New Releases & Financial Opportunities,” which takes place Feb. 20 at Berlin’s European Film Market. Organized by ICEX Spain Trade & Investment, the meeting’s panelists will include Mediacrest‘s executives Gustavo Ferrada and Winnie Baert.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent 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.

Emiliano De Pablos Top Spanish producer Nostromo Pictures, which is behind Netflix hit “Through My Window,” is partnering with Beta Fiction Spain to launch “Hermano Caballo,” a documentary by Marcel Barrera, director of  “Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea” and “100 Meters.” “Hermano Caballo” marks the first documentary produced by Nostromo Pictures and also the first handled by Beta Fiction Spain, the Spanish arm of Jan Mojto’s European studio Beta Film, which launched last year. The documentary focuses on reknowned Catalan wrangler Santi Serra, developer of a natural training technique based on creating bonds with horses and learning through play. 

David de Gea's clean sheet in the victory over Leicester City on Sunday means that the goalkeeper has now recorded the joint-highest clean sheets for Manchester United.

Berlinale Series Market kicks off Monday as Spanish series “The Snow Girl,” a missing girl suspense thriller produced by Spain’s Atípica Films, has attracted huge heat for Netflix, punching 101.7 million hours watched in its first three weeks. Doing so, it ranked as the streamer’s No. 1 non-English show in the world over Jan. 30 – Feb. 5.  In all, Spain has more shows and movies in Netflix’s all time non-English Top 10s than any other country in the world, seven to France’s two, for example.  Spain, it could be argued, has cracked online. But its drama series industry wants to ring more options.