La Claqueta to Produce Animated Gender Violence Survivor Story ‘Bella’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaSaban Films has acquired U.S., Canadian and Spanish rights to the survival thriller “Borrego” from writer and director Jesse Harris. The film stars Lucy Hale (“Truth or Dare,” “Pretty Little Liars”), Nicholas Gonzalez (“The Good Doctor,” “Narcos”), Olivia Trujillo (“Vivo,” “For All Mankind”) and Leynar Gómez (“Narcos,” “Towards the Battle”).

EXCLUSIVE: Starzplay, the international streaming service from Starz that is now in close to 60 countries, is joining forces with Sony Pictures Television (SPT) on a premium scripted series about the life and reign of Spain’s controversial former king Juan Carlos I.

Laure Calamy and the best director award for Eric Gravel in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival, has scored multiple territory deals for Brussels-based sales company Be For Films.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn the biggest news to come out of Iberseries Platino Industria, L.A., Miami and Madrid-based Secuoya Studios and Telemundo Streaming Studios are joining forces to co-develop, co-produce and co-finance multiple fiction projects through to 2023.Sequoya Group’s content production arm, Sequoya Studios, leapt to prominence in April 2020 when appointing James Costos, a former HBO executive and U.S.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMadrid-based Pecado Films will produce “A la cara,” the second feature from director Javier Marco and screenwriter Belén Sánchez-Arévalo whose debut, “Josephine,” world premiered to acclaim at San Sebastian this week.Written by Marco and Sánchez-Arévalo and to be directed by Marco, the duo’s sophomore outing will continue the action of their same-titled 13-minute film which won a 2021 Spanish Academy Goya for best fiction short.The feature project

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentOrganized by the Cannes Festival and Market and Argentina’s INCAA film agency, this year’s Ventana Sur, the biggest film-TV event in Latin America, is rapidly gaining in critical mass.In one crucial development, INCAA president Luis Puenzo confirmed to Variety that Ventana Sur will coincide with the latest meetings of CAACI, the body of governmental audiovisual authorities in Ibero-America – Latin America, Spain and Portugal – and of its biggest

Enrique Iglesias isn't going anywhere.The Spanish singer shocked fans earlier this month when he announced that hisupcoming albums would be his last. Iglesias, 46, however, took a moment to clarify that he's «not retiring» and won't stop making music.«It's important for me to say that I'm not retiring, it's just my final album,» Iglesias told ET's Matt Cohen while promoting his and Ricky Martin's upcoming joint tour.

Emilio Mayorga Selected at TIFF’s Filmmaker Lab, Cannes’ Sources 2 program and Madrid’s ECAM Incubator, “Still Life with Ghosts” marks the first feature from Spain’s Enrique Buleo, director of shorts such as “Decorosa” and “Hell and Such,” which played Clermont-Ferrand and Palm Springs, Slamdance, Nashville and many other events, garnering praise and plaudits.A five-part black comedy, “Still Life with Ghosts” is set in a Spanish village where ghosts and live people come to each other’s aid,

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentViacomCBS’ Pluto TV, the fast-growing, free, ad-supported, linear TV-style streaming service, is set to launch in Italy on Oct. 28 with 40 thematic channels spanning multiple genres.Pluto TV’s Italy launch will expand the service’s European footprint, segueing from successful bows in the U.K., Germany, France and Spain.

Emilio Mayorga Nathalie Trafford’s Paraiso Production Diffusion and Jérôme Vidal’s Noodles from France and Roberto Rodríguez’s Elamedia and Luis Miñarro’s Eddie Saeta from Spain have teamed to co-produce Javier Rebollo’s “Dans la chambre du Sultan.”A multi-prized Spanish film director, Rebollo ­­won San Sebastian’s best director with “La mujer sin piano” (The Woman Without a Piano) and a Fipresci prize with “El muerto y ser feliz” (“The Dead Man and Being Happy”) at the festival’s 2009 and 2012

Liza Foreman Spanish producer Piluca Baquero (“Lo que sé de Lola”) is teaming with former BTF Media executive Miguel Bueno to launch Ramen Story & Content Studio, a new – and ambitious – TV-film production venture.Also on board areMiguel Arnas, José Antonio Bosch and Jesus Gómez, Baquero will serve as an executive producer on titles, Bueno, who worked making commercials for much of his career, is director of content at Ramen.Ramen is focusing on two projects to begin with but “we are not

Jamie Lang Seville-based La Claqueta and Basque label Irusion, co-producers of last year’s Spanish Best International Feature Film Oscar submission “The Endless Trench,” have acquired the rights to adapt Txani Rodríguez’s hit Basque novel “Los últimos románticos” and, sweetening the deal even further, have recruited one of Spain’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers to direct in David Pérez Sañudo.Pérez Sañudo is also reteaming with his “Ane Is Missing” co-screenwriter Marina Parés Pulido,

Emilio Mayorga Executive producer Nuria Landete and Spanish production-distribution company Elamedia are teaming to co-produce the feature debut of Ainhoa Menéndez, “In the Flesh,” a romantic drama with dashes of terror.The project is being developed at Spain’s Incubator platform, a six-month producer mentorship initiative, which is part of The Screen industry program at the Madrid Film and Audiovisual School (ECAM).“Flesh” follows Mara, a woman almost in her thirties, working as a stock girl

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIan de la Rosa, a co-writer on HBO Max hit “Veneno,” has boarded “Las Líneas Discontinuas,” the second feature of Spain’s Anxos Fazáns (“A Estación Violenta”) and one of the first titles at Sétima, the Galicia production house she has set up with producer Silvia Fuentes.De la Rosa, director of “Victor xx,” an ESCAC graduation short director that won third prize at Cannes’ 2015 Cinéfondation competition, is currently co-writing “Las Líneas

Jamie Lang Variety has been given exclusive first access to Agustín Banchero’s debut Uruguayan feature “Hilda’s Short Summer,” sold by FiGa Films and premiering in the New Directors section at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival on Sunday, Sept.

Jamie Lang The Mediapro Studio has given Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for its San Sebastian world premiering workplace comedy “The Good Boss,” starring Javier Bardem.Offbeat and ironic, Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss” is one of this year’s most highly anticipated titles set to premiere at San Sebastián and was selected this week as one of three finalists for Spain’s International Feature Film Oscar submission.

Ann-Marie Corvin Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment has sold Icíar Bollaín’s San Sebastian Festival-bound Basque reconciliation drama “Maixabel” to Germany, striking a deal with Berlin-based distributor Piffl Medien.The film is set to make its theatrical release in Spain on Sept.

Marta Balaga Finland’s Tekele Productions, composed of Julia Elomäki, Miia Haavisto, Marja Pihlaja and Tia Talli, will present three new projects at the Finnish Film Affair this year. “Bad Women” will be shown in the Fiction in Progress section, Variety has learned, while Ulla Heikkilä’s “Viva la Vida” – about a Finnish expat family living in southern Spain – and “The Beast Friend” will make their way to Fiction in Development.

Emiliano De Pablos Filming on Netflix teen series “Tú no eres especial” (“You’re Nothing Special”) kicked-off July 8, becoming the streaming giant’s first TV series entirely filmed in Spain’s northern region of Navarre.The series marks a further step in Netflix’s bet on diversifying its shooting destinations in the country.“Tú no eres especial” is produced by Oria Audiovisual, the indie company launched by Navarre-born producer Puy Oria, co-founder with filmmaker Montxo Armendáriz of Oria