Conecta Fiction & Entertainment: 12 Takeaways, From Radical Growth to Industry Turmoil and Fabulous Fabula

Where do great movies come from? When Netflix started creating its own shows a decade ago, Ted Sarandos and his colleagues put that question to select creatives around town. It was a smart exercise – but most respondents insisted there was no answer.

Zack Sharf SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not watched Episodes 8 and 9 of “Stranger Things 4,” now streaming on Netflix.“Stranger Things 4” came to an end with the deaths of several characters, from Matthew Modine’s Dr. Brenner to Joseph Quinn’s beloved Hellfire Club leader Eddie. Sadie Sink’s Max remains a question mark, as she died at the hands of Vecna but is now in a coma after Eleven brought her somewhat back to life.

Shakira and Gerard Piqué continue making headlines after calling it quits. The Colombian singer and the F.C.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSUN VALLEY, Idaho — David Zaslav was upbeat as he arrived in Sun Valley, Idaho on Tuesday for Allen & Co.’s gathering of business media and tech moguls. The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO had kind words for Netflix and “Stranger Things,” and he told reporters that he expects the annual summit to be “a great week” amid “a lot of turmoil in the business.”Zaslav indicated that Warner Bros.

Manori Ravindran International Editor“Tinder Swindler” production outfit AGC Studios has launched a new division for non-fiction and unscripted content, headed by former Magical Elves executive Joel Zimmer.AGC Unwritten will develop, finance, produce and distribute the company’s burgeoning unscripted slate, with Zimmer serving as president. The intention is for the non-scripted arm to match AGC’s busy operations in the feature film and scripted TV arena.Set up by Stuard Ford in 2018, AGC Studios’ non-fiction titles include the upcoming documentary series “Nobu,” about the famed restauranteur and entrepreneur Nobu Matsuhisa, from documentary director Matt Tyrnauer (“Valentino: The Last Emperor,” “Where’s My Roy Cohn?”).

summer transfer window is in full swing, but it is not only agents and club owners who are working full tilt – behind the scenes the removal men who ship the star players' belongings across the globe are flat out, too. Elite footballers are crisscrossing the world this month as squads worth hundreds of millions of pounds are assembled for next season and VIP shippers are following them to all corners of almost every continent, to fetch or deposit prized possessions. '[Once the deal is done] they want to move tomorrow, or today even', said Andy Wells, owner of Premier Relocations, who will move more than 100 players this summer.

Shakira can belly dance, sing, play multiple instruments, skateboard, and surf. This week photos emerged of the talented artist vacationing in Asturias, Spain, with her children for the first time since calling it quits with Gerard Pique.

These new photos of Gerard Butler and his longtime girlfriend Morgan Brown are too cute!

Kim Cattrall is taking on a big new role, and the cast of her series is being revealed.

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we’ll shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week we speak to Dani de la Torre, co-creator and showrunner of Movistar+’s anti-terrorism thriller drama series La Unidad (The Unit) and director of the recently released feature Live is Life, about local developments, Spain’s emergence as a key European drama hub and his love of nostalgic 1980s movie making.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMoving 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.

EXCLUSIVE: Alice Eve (Belgravia), Shelley Hennig (Unfriended) and Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory) have signed on to star in Jon Keeyes’ thriller The Last Girl for Yale Entertainment, which will head into production in Ireland this summer.

Gerard Piqué and Shakira are living separate lives, Spanish media outlets assure that the Colombian singer and businesswoman is considering moving back to the United States. Spain’s national daily sports newspaper Marca reports a legal battle between Shakira and the Spanish soccer player.Although the pair never tied the knot, Shakira and Piqué might bring their disagreements before a judge to decide their rights with their two sons, Milan and Sasha.The publication also informed that a journalist of Televisión Española claims that the “Waka Waka” singer wants to move to Miami, Florida, for a while and bring them with her for at least two months.Allegedly the Barcelona Club athlete refused to allow Shakira to leave Spain with their kids and sign the necessary paperwork giving her permission.Shakira and Chris Evans are the internet’s favorite fantasy coupleShakira reappears shaking her hips weeks after calling it quits from Gerard PiquéCreepy messages were spray painted in front of Shakira’s family home in BarcelonaThe singer’s decision to leave Barcelona for a while comes after creepy messages were left right outside her family home.

Paramount, Disney, Netflix, Comcast, Sony and Conde Nast will cover the travel costs for employees seeking abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Variety has confirmed.Disney reached out to employees Friday to state they recognize the “impact” of the Supreme Court’s decision and “remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care” for all Disney employees and their families, which includes family planning and reproductive care, “no matter where they live.”For Disney employees unable to access a medical service, including abortions, in one location, they have a travel benefit that allows for “affordable coverage for receiving similar levels of care in another location.” “Netflix offers a travel reimbursement coverage for full-time U.S.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentPortugal’s “The Last Wolf,” Lebanon’s “Status Quo” and Uruguay’s “The Invisible Ink” proved big winners at the 6th Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, which will wrap Friday in Toledo, Spain.A potential part of a burgeoning production axis between Spain and Portugal, “The Last Wolf” won the largest prize of the night, a development deal at Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, worth an estimated €50,000 ($52,500) and a virtual invitation to set the project up as a co-production with Spain.The prize is a sign of the times. Battling financial straights, RTVE is turning to co-production or license deals – with its peers in Europe (Germany’s ZDF Studios on Simon West Magellan epic “Boundless”) or go-ahead and more flexible U.S.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Ask Jose Velasco, 60, what he thinks about the Conecta Fiction Honorary award he’s receiving on Thursday June 23 and his first response is, “Why?”The self-effacing founder and president of powerhouse content producer iZen Group says he is grateful to those who decided to give it to him, “rightly or not.” “I guess it’s because I’ve been in this business for 35 years and have done everything from fiction to reality to game shows,” he muses, adding: “But if they think this will make me retire, they’re mistaken.”“I guess I am of the generation of people in Spain who were trying the shape the country’s television landscape,” he notes. Indeed, Velasco founded and ran one of the pioneering entertainment giants of Spain, Globomedia.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentBTF Media, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s fastest-growing production houses, has unveiled a BTF Acceleration prize initiative worth up to a collective $500,000 for five projects at this week’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, the Europe-America TV co-production forum. BTF Acceleration seeks to promote emerging talent, opening up opportunities within the audiovisual industry, incubating creators and accelerating projects, BTF Media announced via the organisation of Conecta Fiction on Wednesday. The initiative forms part of BTF Corporate Venture Capital, a private capital investment fund promoted by the company. BTF Media will become a strategic ally accompanying the projects’ realization, it added, saying that the maximum endowment provided for this fund is $500,000.