Spain Talks Up New 70% Tax Break

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s Marc Clotet (“The Sleeping Voice,” “15 Hours”) and Argentina’s Juan Gil Navarro (“100 Days To Fall in Love”), Santiago Achaga (“Like, La Leyenda”) and Esteban Pérez (“Limbo”) are attached to star in “Fragile,” a slice of Patagonia noir thriller from Argentina’s StoryLab.  Created and produced by StoryLab partners Nacho Viale and Diego Palacio, “Fragile” is backed by Flow, Telecom’s dominate Argentine SVOD service, and Televisión Publica Argentina, the country’s public broadcast network.  Palacio will direct “Fragile” (“Fragiles”) from screenplays penned by Lucas Molteni, whose has written on five StoryLab series dating back to 201’s “Estocolmo,” up-and-coming scribes Juan E. Cordoni and Luciano Cocciardi and Viale and Palacio. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Upping the ante on its inaugural edition, the 2nd Iberseries & Platino Industria will unveil about 50 drama series, whether via first episodes (Capítulo Uno, Segunda Ventana), or showreels or trailers (Upcoming…). Following a breakdown of titles, and showreel highlights in showreels, featuring some of the most anticipated titles from Spain and Latin America, as well as recent hits: Capitulo Uno “El Encargado,” (Star Original Productions/The Walt Disney Company Latin America)

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Rodrigo Sorogoyen, director of “As Bestas,” “Riot Police” and the Oscar-nominated “Madre,” is bringing onto the international market “La Guerra,” a six-part drama delivering a new vision of the Spanish Civil War which looks like one of the biggest Spanish series ever made. Sorogoyen will direct all six episodes. Isabel Peña, Sorogoyen, and Eduardo Villanueva, “Riot Police’s”writing team, have fairly definitive version of three episodes with the rest at an initial phase.  “La Guerra” was originally set up at Movistar Plus+. In an amicable settlement – Sorogoyen has gone on to direct and promote an episode of Movistar+ original “Offworld” at last week’s San Sebastián – after Movistar Plus+ pulled out of the series, Sorogoyen and Villanueva’s Madrid-based label Caballo Films have recovered the rights. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Headed by ex-HBO exec James Costos, Los Angeles and Madrid-based Secuoya Studios and Colombia’s Caracol Television have closed a framework deal to jointly develop, produce and finance scripted series over the next year.  The agreement seals an alliance between two of Latin America’s powerhouses, with large international ambitions. Amazon’s Prime Video and now Mediawan have boarded Secuoya Studios’ flagship series “Zorro,” starring “Elite’s” Miguel Bernardeau and Renata Notni, directed by “Money Heist’s” Javier Quintas. Producer of iconic longer-format series, Caracol TV’s “La Reina del Flow” Season 1 sold to over 100 countries; “El Rey; Vicente Fernandez” Season 1 bowed on Netflix Sept. 12 , shooting to No. 3 in global non-English charts. 

Holly Willoughby took to Instagram on Sunday with a message of hope, and her followers were quick to respond.The star's Wylde Moon account posted an image of a sliver of moon with a message underneath.MORE: Holly Willoughby 'distraught' over queue controversy, says 'good friend' Piers MorganIt read: "With the turn of the seasons, we welcome the New Moon in Libra and the opportunity it brings to redress the balance and restore equilibrium in our lives."It went on: "Breed. Connect.

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.     

Ricki Lake is looking back on her own career journey as part of her new podcast series, and she's looking forward to the self-reflective journey alongside some famous friends.Lake recently sat down with ET's Nischelle Turner and opened up about her new podcast series, — which she's hosting alongside The Ellen DeGeneres Show alum Kalen Allen.In the podcast, Lake will reexamine her show that ran for 11 seasons and cemented itself in pop culture. The show pioneered the DNA test results segments long before Maury Povich popularized it on his show, and Lake had some of daytime TV's most memorable guests.Looking back at her time as host, Lake reflected on how she was only 24 when she was first handed the mic, and never in a million years did she think it'd blow up the way it did.«No, I didn't think it was going to be this big huge hit. I never have anticipated any of my success, nor have I calculated the next move,» she said.

Ricki Lake is looking back on her own career journey as part of her new podcast series, and she's looking forward to the self-reflective journey alongside some famous friends.Lake recently sat down with ET's Nischelle Turner and opened up about her new podcast series, — which she's hosting alongside The Ellen DeGeneres Show alum Kalen Allen.In the podcast, Lake will reexamine her show that ran for 11 seasons and cemented itself in pop culture. The show pioneered the DNA test results segments long before Maury Povich popularized it on his show, and Lake had some of daytime TV's most memorable guests.Looking back at her time as host, Lake reflected on how she was only 24 when she was first handed the mic, and never in a million years did she think it'd blow up the way it did.«No, I didn't think it was going to be this big huge hit. I never have anticipated any of my success, nor have I calculated the next move,» she said.

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.  

Olivia Wilde is continuing to promote her movie Don’t Worry Darling ahead of its release next weekend.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Austrian director Ulrich Seidl has cancelled his visit to San Sebastian for the Sept. 18 world premiere of “Sparta,” amid allegations of impropriety and child exploitation made against the director. The world premiere will still go ahead at San Sebastian with the film playing in main competition contending for San Sebastian’s Gold Shell. Seidl’s decision comes after the Toronto Film Festival pulled “Sparta” and on Sept. 14, FilmFest Hamburg announced that it would no longer be giving Seidl its Douglas Sirk Award, though it would be screening “Sparta.”

Jem Aswad Senior Music Editor Rina Sawayama is one of a handful of artists who released an album just as the pandemic was beginning and watched, astonished, as their stars rose during lockdown. The Japanese-British singer’s debut, “Sawayama,” was a wild fusion of Lady Gaga with nu-metal guitars, but also showed a penchant for sentimental ballads amid the power chords and intensity. The album won a co-sign from none other than Elton John, and its videos got her cast in the fourth installment of Keanu Reeves’ “John Wick” series, due in March. In fact, Elton was one of many people who spoke out against Sawayama’s exclusion from eligibility for England’s BRIT and Mercury awards because she isn’t a U.K. citizen, even though she’s lived in England since the age of 5. After #SawayamaIsBritish became a trending topic on Twitter, the British Phonographic Industry changed the eligibility rules to include anyone who lived in the country for at least five years, including her.

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.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In the first shot of “OffWorld” (“Apagon”), the camera focuses on Ernesto – balding, serious, tired, lost in thought. It then pulls back to reveal the whole of his office, a computer-screen packed rom at an emergency intervention unit. The shot says much about the latest series from Movistar+, “Off world,” which world premieres in Official Selection at Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival and in turn speaks volumes of the ambitions and priorities of Telefonica-owned Movistar+, Southern Europe’s biggest national pay-TV/SVOD service.  Produced with Buendía Estudios, “OffWorld” presents five stories which place very different individuals in the same context, a world where there’s no electricity thanks to a massive power outage; things taken for granted like phones and the internet don’t work. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent The San Sebastian Festival opens on Sept. 16 with a bang: Alberto Rodriguez’s “Prison 77,” most probably the biggest Spanish film of 2022, the latest title from one of the Spain’s most preeminent auteurs and a foretaste of one possible future face of Spanish cinema, thanks to Movistar+. “Prison 77” begins as a fish-out-of-water jail survival thriller. Manuel, in 1977, a young accountant, played by Miguel Herrán (“Money Heist,” “Elite”), is sent to Barcelona’s legendary Modelo penitentiary pending trial for embezzlement.  It grows, however, for all of its length, as a character-driven tale of psychological observance, as Miguel gradually befriends Pino, his seen-it-all cell mate, who just wants a quiet life.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Alvaro Longoria, partner-producer at Morena Films, one of Spain’s top production shingles, is teaming with the Government of Cantabria to create El Bosque del Cine, a pioneering reforestation scheme offering producers a simple but inspiring way of cancelling productions’ carbon footprints.  The program is set to be unveiled on Sept. 13 at a round table at this week’s Santander Film Festival. El Bosque del Cine aims to plant 34,000 trees over 40 hectares, lent to the program by the Government of Cantabria. Creation will be divided into two phases of 20 hectares each, the first beginning this year. The forest will absorb 19,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, equivalent to the footprint of 320 movies. 

This week’s 20 Questions On Deadline guest is Rachel Bloom.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Munich-based Beta Film, one of Europe’s biggest truly independent TV-film groups, has licensed to PPCW Media for Hong Kong and Macau International Emmy winner “Atlantic Crossing,” starring Kyle MacLachan and Sofia Helin. PPC Media has also acquired Alejandro Amenábar’s Movistar Plus+ original “La Fortuna,” with Stanley Tucci and Clarke Peters, a tale of piracy, court room battles and historical justice set between the U.S. and Spain. Reaching more remote places, Beta has also closed Mongolia with Hulegu Media, on “Sisi” a mix of sex, politics and period glam from RTL, Beta and Story House, a modern mindset take on a film icon.