Long Awaited Movistar Plus TV Dramas ‘El Inmortal’ and ‘Rapa’ Join Beta Film’s Line-Up (EXCLUSIVE)

Manchester City supporters are urging Pep Guardiola to pick Raheem Sterling over Jack Grealish when naming his starting XI for the Atletico Madrid showdown. Tonight sees the Spanish champions head to the Etihad Stadium for the first leg of their Champions League last-eight tie.

Studiocanal is collaborating with Sixteen Films’ Rebecca O’Brien and Morena Film’s Juan Gordon to develop a series created by longtime Ken Loach scribe Paul Laverty and to be directed by Spain’s Iciar Bollaín.The drama series will be the first for both Laverty and Bollaín after writing and directing respectively 19 and nine feature films, including collaborations on Bollaín’s multi-prized “Yuli,” “The Olive Tree” and “Even the Rain,” movies that established her as one of Spain’s top film directors.Over the last few years, Cannes’ MipTV trade fair, once a strict TV silo, is now ever more MipFilm. Signs of an ever-building crossover between the two sectors look indeed to make up one of the hallmarks of this year’s event.

Emiliano De Pablos Secuoya Studios, the ambitious Los Ángeles and Madrid-based film-TV production outfit, is joining forces with Sergio Pizzolante, a former HBO and Sony Pictures executive, to launch international sales operation Secuoya Studios Commercial & Distribution.Pizzolante will serve as the president and a minority shareholder of the new company, fruit of a partnership by Secuoya Studios with Pizzolante’s Miami-based indie content and talent agency Ctmobs.The initiative will act as a commercial arm for all the audiovisual projects at Secuoya, “aimed to achieve the integration of the studios’ contents at all of stages, from creation, production and post-production, to national and international distribution, taking in production services and tax incentives’ structuring and management, to compete at the highest level with a true value offer in a market in constant evolution,” Secuoya announced in a statement Monday. With headquarters in Miami and offices in México, Madrid and Los Ángeles, Secuoya Studios Commercial & Distribution looks like proving a key player in the studio’s strategic pillars.It will aim to prime strong pre-sales when license international distribution windows, creating pre-financing for productions with their own IPs.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentWorld premiering in the main Canneseries competition, “El Inmortal – Gangs of Madrid” marks the latest original series from Movistar Plus, the Spanish pay TV/SVOD arm of Telefonica, made with Banijay’s DLO Producciones and Telemundo Streaming Studios. Beta Film handles international distribution.It shows.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend are making the 2022 Grammys a family night out!

Sky Ferreira has (finally) hinted that her long-awaited return with new music is on the horizon.

Emilio Mayorga “Son,” “Cosas de chicos,” “Votamos” and “36” are among eight shorts at this year’s Madrid en Corto, an increasingly key Spanish platform for new talent now in huge demand in a platform age.Recent past editions have included Carlota Pereda’s original “Cerdita,” whose feature version dazzled at January’s Sundance, and shorts from Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, director of Berlin Panorama player “Lullaby,” which swept the Málaga Film Festival on Saturday night, and Javier Marco whose “Josephine” proved a prominent feature debut at September’s San Sebastián. In all, over its 18 editions, titles in Madrid en Corto’s distribution catalog have earned 32 nominations for Spanish Academy Goya Awards. This year, the Goya fiction short winner (Verónica Echegui’s “Totem Loba”) doc short laureate (“Mama”) and “The Monkey,” which snagged best animated short, all feature in Madrid en Corto’s catalog.  Women look likely to make much of the running at this year’s edition, organised by ECAM Distribución, the distribution arm of the enterprising Madrid Film School (ECAM), whose Screen-Incubator has fast become one of the key industry development labs in Spain.

John Stones has pulled out of the England squad and returned to Manchester City, the FA has announced.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterCatalina Sandino Moreno and Harold Torres have been cast in “Silent Night,” an action-thriller starring Joel Kinnaman.Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo (“A Better Tomorrow”) is directing the film, which is currently in production in Mexico City. The story centers on Godlock (Kinnaman), a father on a mission to avenge his young son, who was tragically caught in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve.

Ed Meza @edmezavarFilmax has acquired international rights to Malaga Festival screener “Can’t Live Without You,” an erotic thriller from director Chus Gutierrez (“Return to Hansala”).A Spanish-Mexican co-production, the pic features huge Mexican stars Maite Perroni and Mauricio Ochmann as well as Spanish actors Alfonso Bassave (“I Love You, Stupid”) and Pedro Casablanc.The pic follows David, a successful businessman who who lives a peaceful life with his boyfriend, Alex, an attractive gym instructor. Their world turns upside down, however, when David’s sister Blanca comes back into his life.

Ed Meza @edmezavarBarcelona-based Filmax has picked up international rights to “We Won’t Kill Each Other With Guns,” by Spanish director Maria Ripoll (“Live Twice, Love Once”).Described as a generational tale, the film tells the story of a group of friends in their thirties who get together after years of not seeing each other. Ingrid Garcia-Jonsson (“Beautiful Youth”) leads a cast that also includes Elena Martin (“Julia Ist”), Lorena Lopez, Joe Manjon (“The August Virgin”) and Carlos Troya.While the village is getting ready for its annual fest, Blanca (Garcia-Jonsson) is organizing a get-together with all her old friends, whom she hasn’t seen in years.

Emilio Mayorga Buzzy titles such as “Guián,” “Rhinoceros” and “Of Books and Women I Sing” are among the 14 titles at Málaga’s extensive WIP showcase, a springboard in the past for the discovery of titles such as Spanish horror thriller “The Platform” which, winning the Latido Films Prize at WIP, has gone on to become the second most-watched non-English language movie ever on Netflix.Awarded the biggest plaudit at last year’s Malaga WIP, Adrián Silvestre’s “My Emptiness and I” made a splash at February’s Rotterdam Festival and now competes at Málaga.In a 2022 spread of titles presented over March 22-25, six hail from Spain and eight from Latin-America In addition to the Málaga Film Festival award, private-sector prizes from Aracne Digital Cinema, Damita Joe, Latamcinema.com, Latido Films, Music Library, Yagán Films– are also at stake. The Spanish section’s jury comprises Madrid Film School’s Luis Ferrón, Quatre Films producer Alejandra Mora and Joana Gusmão, DocLisboa co-director.Jury members for the Latin America section are Pamela Biénzobas, a Locarno selection committee member, Cup Filmes producer Iván Carlos De Melo and Antoine Sebire, general delegate at the Biarritz Latin America Festival.2022 Málaga WIP Lineup:Spanish WIP“Of Books and Women I Sing,” (María Elorza, TxintxuaFilms)A creative documentary about four women who have spent their lives reading and studying, safeguarding a precious heritage.

Ed Meza @edmezavarIn his new documentary, “The Kaiser of Atlantis,” Argentine director Sebastián Alfie tells the story of composer Viktor Ullmann’s chamber opera, about a tyrant bent on waging endless war – written in 1943 in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt (Terezín) – and, more than 70 years later, a new production of the work in Madrid.Alfie plans to follow up “The Kaiser of Atlantis” — which premieres at the Malaga Festival — with a biopic about Ullmann and the two years he spent imprisoned in Terezín.The director first saw the opera by chance in 2006 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. “When I read in the playbill that it had been written in a concentration camp, questions began to arise that are the germ of the documentary.

Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast was named Best Picture at the 20th anniversary AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, which were handed out in a virtual ceremony hosted by Alan Cumming tonight. Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis took Best Actor and Supporting Actress for their respective roles in King Richard, making it the only movie or TV show to win multiple awards.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Less than a year since its June 29, 2021 launch in the region, HBO Max Latin America is adding a raft of new original Latin American shows to its programming grid. WarnerMedia’s SVOD service now ranks second in the region, albeit still lagging behind market leader, Netflix.“When we launched more than eight months ago, we promised to launch 100 shows in a year and a half; I think we’re on track to deliver that promise,” said Luis Duran, general manager, HBO Max Latin America, in an exclusive interview with Variety.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentCarol Polakoff, a two-time Directors Guild of America award winner, is teaming with “Exodus” producer Denise O’Dell to adapt to the big screen “Speak Sunlight,” American writer Alan Jolis’ much-loved memoir. Now in pre-production and scheduled to shoot from May 8, the high-profile title is produced by Madrid-based Babieka Films, most recently behind Netflix hit “The Paramedic,”  and L.A.’s Viewfinder Pictures. “Speak Sunlight” (“La Voz del Sol”) marks the directorial debut of journalist-screenwriter Polakoff whose curriculum includes two DGA wins and three Daytime Emmy Awards nominations for “ABC Afterschool Specials.” Most recently, Polakoff produced Daniel Rosenberg’s 2020 Cannes Official Selection title “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” which won a Cannes Label for making the cut in Thierry Frémaux’s First Features category. To film in Spanish, with a smattering of French, “Speak Sunlight” is written by Polakoff with a Spanish version from Natxo López, a creator of top primetime series such as “Perdida” and “Unauthorised Living.” López also co-wrote the just-out Amazon Studios hit “Operation Black Tide,” the subject of a case study panel at Series Mania on March 23.A heartfelt coming of age tale set in Paris and majorly Pamplona in 1965, “Speak Sunlight” is based on the memoir of the same title by Jolis, who died aged just 46 in 2000. It drinks from his childhood memories as the son of posh but distant American parents in Paris who is really looked after by the family’s cook, Maruja, a force of nature, and her husband, Manolo, the butler. In 1965, they take Alanito off to Pamplona, where he awakes to a vivid sensual world and grows up emotionally.

Manchester United will be looking to progress to the last eight of the Champions League for the first time since 2019 when they face Atletico Madrid in the second-leg of their last-16 showdown at Old Trafford this evening.

The Rolling Stones have announced details of a 60th anniversary tour hitting the UK and Europe this summer. See full dates below, and tickets will be available here.Having been teasing fans for the past week, the rock legends will be heading out on the road to mark six decades as a band for the ‘SIXTY’ tour – with a new show and live production starting in Madrid on June 1 before heading to Munich, Liverpool, Amsterdam, Bern, Milan, London, Brussels, Vienna, Lyon, Paris, Gelsenkirchen and Stockholm.Following on from their acclaimed USA ‘No Filter’ tour, ‘SIXTY’ will see Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood make their long-awaited return to the UK, performing at the home of Liverpool FC – Anfield, for the Stones’ first in Liverpool show for over 50 years, followed by two shows in London’s Hyde Park for British Summer Time Festival.