Director Elena Tara, Not Alone Producers, Talk ‘Ripli’

EXCLUSIVE: Bernie Ecclestone has slammed Formula 1 documentaries currently on the market and said audiences will prefer the “reality” of his upcoming series Lucky!, which Deadline can reveal has added a trio of broadcast and streaming partners.

Holly Jones A wandering love note to Madrid directed by local filmmaker Curro Sánchez Varela, “Voices of a City” ( “Voces de una ciudad”) merges prominent aesthetics with a charismatic populace, who so often blend into the background of photos taken of the bustling metropoli.  The film is a curated 24-hour journey through each urban corner, delving into the most integral part of any locale, the humans living within its confines, serving as an immersive peek into the city’s history, culture and enduring allure. Breezily narrated by Goya Award-winning Spanish actress Blanca Portillo (“Maixabel”), the sprawling shots of familiar architecture run alongside sharply focused studies of residents from the mayor to a famed chef, taxi drivers to artists and musicians, as well as a most charming retired couple.

is getting ready to start a busy fall promoting : Master Gardener, The Good House, Call Jane, and Avatar 2. “It's funny that they're all coming out at the same time because they're all so different," she says.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Principal photography is underway on police thriller “Memento Mori” from one of Spain’s biggest production shingles, Zebra Productions, part of Grupo iZen, which presented its upcoming series “Tenorio” at Iberseries’ Co-Production & Financing Forum on Sept. 28. Zebra produced “El Cid,” a meticulously accurate but grand-scale Prime Video series  “Tenorio” takes a deep dive into the life of iconic literary character Don Juan Tenorio to explore how he transformed into the legendary ‘Latin Lover’ of yore . “Memento Mori,” which has been shooting in the city of Valladolid, is based on a trilogy of novels by author César Pérez Gellida who hails from the town, said iZen’s Lara Lejarza.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In what is expected to be a surefire hit, Buendia Estudios revealed an upcoming TV series adaptation of Antonio Gala’s erotic novel, “La Pasion Turca.” The popular novel was last adapted into a hit feature film in 1994 with the late Vicente Aranda directing and Andres Vicente Gomez of Lolafilms producing. It starred singer-actress Ana Belen in what is considered her most successful film. Buendia Estudios’ director general Ignacio Corrales and editorial director Sonia Martínez jointly announced the new project at the 2nd edition of the Iberseries & Platino Industria television event in Madrid. The new six-episode series set to air on Spanish free-to-air channel Antena 3 and streamer AtresPlayer Premium will start shooting by the end of October in Turkey for seven weeks before moving to Madrid. The cast will be made up of Spanish, Turkish and Italian talent.

Anna Marie de la Fuente “Money Heist” star Alvaro Morte is attached to star in “Talkies,” from “Luis Miguel” producer Gato Grande, which will be presented at the Iberseries inaugural Co-Production & Financing Forum on Sept. 28. “Talkies” covers the period between 1930 and 1934, an unusual time when foreign-language versions were shot on the same sets where the original English-language films were shot before dubbing or sub-titling technology existed.  Helmed by “Money Heist” director Alex Rodrigo and co-developed with Catalonia’s Veranda (“Merli”), the 8 x 45” series centers on the making of Spanish-language ‘talkies’ some of which, like the Spanish version of Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula,” were considered far superior. Morte will play the actor Carlos Villarias, who took on the Dracula role in the Spanish version.

Emiliano De Pablos Top Spanish arthouse distributor-producer Avalon had boarded “La niña de la cabra” (“Goat Girl”), the sophomore film by actor-director Ana Asensio whose “Most Beautiful Island” feature snagged the SXSW Grand Jury Award in 2017. The project, which has just earned support from Spain’s ICAA film institute, is set up at Aquí y Allí Films and co-produced with Romania’s Avantpost Media. Pedro Hernández’s Aquí y Allí Films is the producer behind Antonio Méndez Esparza’s festival hits “Here and There,” a Cannes Critics’ Week winner, and “Life and Nothing More.” An allegorical drama set in the suburbs of Madrid in the late ’80s, “Goat Girl” is scheduled to roll in 2023 and has been acquired for international sales by Paris-based Alpha Violet.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Stephen Kronish and Jon Cassar, showrunner and director-producer respectively of “24,” the ratings and critical hit which ran on Fox network for nine seasons, have boarded upcoming thriller series “Barcelona.” The news was jointly announced by transatlantic production company El Estudio, Jeff Berg’s Northside Services, Todd Slater’s Convoke Media (“King of Killers”) and Karen and Howard Baldwin (“Ray”) of Kemb Prods. who have teamed up to produce the ambitious project. “Barcelona” is one of 10 series being presented at the inaugural Co-Production and Financing Forum at Madrid’s 2nd Iberseries & Platino Industria TV event.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent The dream child of 10 Basque businessmen who hoped to prolong San Sebastián’s summer season into late September, the San Sebastian Film Festival was born on Sept. 21, 1953.  Presented by bullfighter Mario Cabré, who romanced Ava Gardner, and comprising just 19 films, won by “La guerra de Dios,” directed by Rafael Gil., rescued from a potential Republican firing squad by Luis Buñuel not so many years before. Fireworks, bullfights and quayside parties regaled the film week. From that first edition remain the beauty and gastronomy of San Sebastian, a Belle Epoque resort boasting the spectacular white-sand Concha Bay, steep-backed hills, an old quarter of higgeldy-piggeldy streets and a trio of three-star Michelin restaurants. 70 years later, San Sebastián still stuns.     

Liza Foreman Murky blue- brown images, bringing to mind a Lorca play developed for today’s premium TV audience, fill the screen in the trailer for “The Gypsy Bride,” from “Penny Dreadful” director Paco Cabezas, which world premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival. The fiction is produced by ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS), with the participation of Atresmedia Televisión, and in collaboration with Diagonal TV. As well as presenting the first season of the series at the Spanish-speaking world’s highest-profile festival, Cabezas, the show’s creator and director had something else to celebrate on Wednesday. 

Emiliano De Pablos “The Silence of the Ants,” by documentary filmmaker Francisco Montoro, snagged top prizes at the 18th Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum, part of the San Sebastián Festival. The documentary took the Ibaia–Elkargi Award for best project at the pitching session, plus the Distribution and Festival Consultancy Treeline Award and the Fipadoc Biarritz Award. Produced by Apnea Films, “The Silence of the Ants” follows a Spanish couple who traveled to the Ukraine in 2015 to find the seven-year-old girl they hosted for temporary foster care. Federation Spain’s “Carapirú: El Superviviente,” by Aner Etxebarria and Pablo Vidal, took The Ibaia – Bilibin Circular Prize for its environmental values with a title suggesting a combination of “Cast Away” and “Apocalypto” translated to real life in Brazil’s Amazon jungle.

RuPaul’s Drag Race España is getting an All Stars edition!

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Paris-based La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma, producer of Chema García Ibarra’s 2021 Locarno winner “Sacred Spirit,” has boarded Gabriel Azorin’s “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes,” marking another financing milestone for his buzzy, poetic and time blending Spanish project.  A Locarno Match Me! hit. “Thebes” has been put through both San Sebastián’s Ikusmira Berriak and Madrid’s ECAM Incubator, rapidly consolidating as Spain’s foremost development labs which each attract about 270 applications a year.   La Fabrica Nocturna, whose credits also take in “The Heiresses,” joins Madrid’s Dvein Films, A Coruña’s Filmika Galaika (“They Carry Death”) and Lisbon’s Primeira Idade (“The Metamorphosis of Birds”) as a producer partner on “Thebes,” which won a RTP Award, consisting of the pre-buy of rights from the Portuguese public broadcaster, at late 2020’s Seville European Film Festival.  

The dad of a 15-year-old killed by teenagers sobbed in the dock as he was sentenced for abusing the boy's grieving mum.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Atresplayer Premium, the burgeoning OTT service behind HBO Max hit “Veneno,” has renewed “The Gypsy Bride” (“La novia gitana”), whose Season 1, from “Penny Dreadful” director Paco Cabezas, world premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival.  Atresmedia Television will produce with Banijay Iberia’s Diagonal TV, producer of Netflix hit “Heirs to the Land.”Produced by VIS with the participation of Atresmedia Television and the collaboration of the Diagonal TV, the first season of “The Gypsy Bride” will bow on Atresplayer Premium on Sept. 25.  Directed in its totality by Cabezas, whose credits also include “American Gods,” Season 1 is set in a gypsy community on Madrid’s humble outskirts as homicide inspector Elena Blanco, (Nerea Barros, “Marshland”) is called in to investigate the torture and assassination of a young woman just before her wedding.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Spanish indie production shingle Nadie es Perfecto, producer of Alex de la Iglesia’s hit comedy “Perfectos Desconocidos,” has tapped former Netflix exec Juan Mayne to join the company as it revs up its slate with a slew of new projects. These include two pics in pre-production: “La navidad en sus manos,” in co-production with Bowfinger and Esto También Pasará, directed by Joaquín Mazón, starring Ernesto Sevilla and with a special collaboration from actor-filmmaker Santiago Segura, who has worked with de la Iglesia and Guillermo del Toro; and “Locomía,” directed by Kike Maillo, starring Jaime Lorente (“Money Heist,” “Elite”) and Alberto Ammann (“Lope,” “El silencio del cazador”).

Raphael Varane has identified one of the key differences between the Premier League and La Liga.