Universal International Studios, ‘Cardo’ Producer Buendia Estudios Strike Deal for Spanish-Language Shows (EXCLUSIVE)

Afternoon all, Max Goldbart here looking back on quite a week. Lots to digest so the Insider has you covered. Read on.

Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo has played down speculation that this year's World Cup in Qatar could be his last.

“The Slap Heard Around The World” is how Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald has appropriately described it.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentWrapping March 26, the 25th Malaga Festival and its Spanish Screenings delivered another confirmation of Spain’s build as a fiction force in a new platform era. Following, nine final takes on what may prove a historic edition. A Vibrant Spanish ScreeningsMálaga’s plus-size 2022 Spanish Screenings fairly rocked. Extra funding from Spain’s AVS Hub Plan, covering far more buyers’ flights, meant attendance skyrocketed.

Bindi Irwin’s baby is 1! The conservationist and her husband, Chandler Powell, celebrated their daughter Grace’s birthday on Thursday, March 24.

Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell threw their daughter Grace Warrior a lavish party on Friday to celebrate her milestone first birthday. The conservationist couple, who celebrated their second wedding anniversary on the same day, organised a celebration at Australia Zoo with their family and friends. The party was complete with elaborate blush decorations, a two-tiered pink cake and animals, and there was even a sweet tribute to Bindi's late father Steve Irwin.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBruce Tuchmann-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films.

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.

 Current ceilings are €18 million ($19.8 million) for the Canary Islands, €10 million ($11 million) for the rest of Spain.The call for a muscular rise in incentives was made at Spain’s Málaga Film Festival, as industry figures including Fernando Victoria de Lecea, line producer on Wes Anderson’s 2021 Spanish shoot “Asteroid City,” sketched a possible roadmap to take full advantage of the country’s extraordinary $1.8 billion Spain AVS Hub state funding which has begun to flow into events such as Málaga’s Spanish Screenings and the bullush promotion of Spanish series at Series Mania. Other panelists took in Carlos Rosado, president of the Spain Film Commission, Roberto Sacristán, head of Alianza Industria Audiovisual (ALIA) and Rosa García, president of RedCau, a network grouping five of Spain’s biggest film-TV clusters.In contrast to so many Spanish industry panels at festivals down the decades, the panel’s mood was upbeat. Rosado recalled how the Spain Film Commission aided in the creation of Spain’s first international shoot tax rebate on local spend, instituted in 2015, As first-phase COVID-19 still raged, at the instance of Rosado and former U.S.

Emilio Mayorga Alba Sotorra has teamed with Miramemira’s Andrea Vázquez, Spanish pubcaster TVE and Catalonia’s TVC to co-produce “Sica,” the first fiction feature of documentarist Carla Subirana , a 2012 Málaga Golden Biznaga winner for “Kanimambo” and director of “Nedar.”The film is included in Malaga’s Spanish WIP showcase.The feature focuses on 13-year old Sica who lives on Costa da Morte, a Galician fishing shoreline known for its natural beauty and the danger of its coast. Passionate about the ocean, Sica waits for the waves to bring back the corpse of her father, a fisherman who perished at sea alongside her friend’s Leda.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Call My Agent! and Marianne writer Quoc Dang Tran has struck a first-look deal with Universal International Studios, becoming the first French writer to sign such a deal with a major studio.

Justin Morgan Outsider Pictures has secured the international rights to co-directors Pablo Aragüés and Marta Cabrera’s genre feature “Para entrar a vivir” ahead of the Malaga Film Festival this March. It will showcase the film’s trailer at the NEXT from Spain section of the Malaga Festival; the whole film will screen at the Cannes Film Market this May.Paul Hudson, Outsider Pictures founder and CEO, shared with Variety the comedy-horror film’s trailer, which follows the troubles of a couple moving into a magical new home. The trailer begins by asking, “what if the dream house gave everything you wanted,” setting a light mood.The couple, played by Barbara Goenaga (Goya-nominated for “Oviedo Express”) and Gorka Otxoa (“Fe de etarras”), moves into their dream house, which they soon realize magically grants any wish they request.

With the Easter holidays just around the corner, our favourite destinations are relaxing Covid entry requirements and the need for PCRs.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefHong Kong’s broadcasters and streamers were active buyers of content ahead of this week’s FilMart. Pay-TV platform, Now TV picked up a nine-title package of factual content from All3Media International.

Isla Fisher (Wolf Like Me) has signed on to star alongside Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Will Forte and Randall Park in Universal’s animated comedy Strays, Deadline can confirm.

At Water’s Edge, a mesmerizing queer dance short from the acclaimed, trailblazing transgender choreographer, and Homo Pol, a short dance documentary film by Amadeus Pawlica focused on the LGBTQ community in Poland.Monday, March 21, brings nine more in a program exploring relationships at opposite ends of the age spectrum, from budding young love to the Alzheimer’s-induced fading memory of a relationship more than 40 years in the making.Also part of Week 2 programming is the German short Pussy Cruising, a humorous take and fantastical riff on the subject posed by the question, “What would cruising among lesbians look like?”The seven films packaged in Week 3 examine the prejudices, discrimination, and other hurdles, some of them self-imposed, faced by people with queer identities, particularly as faced by those living in Iran, Finland, Greece, Spain, North America, and Chile — with The Bodies of Siegfried, Emilio Rodriguez’s documentary offering a visual exploration questioning the limits of art and pornography.Finally, queer challenges, from identity and self-image to romantic relationships, are explored in the final six selected for Week 4, beginning April 4 and ending April 11.Tickets per program, offering a full week of streaming, are $10, or $25 for a full festival pass.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterApple has ordered a Spanish-language series inspired by the documentary “Midnight Family” (“Familia de Medianoche”).The series will be Apple’s first series produced entirely in Spanish. “Midnight Family” follows Marigaby Tamayo (Renata Vaca), an ambitious and gifted medical student by day, who spends her nights saving lives throughout a sprawling, contrasted and fascinating Mexico City aboard her family’s privately owned ambulance. Along with her father Ramón (Joaquín Cosío) and her siblings Marcus (Diego Calva) and Julito (Sergio Bautista), Marigaby serves a population of millions by tackling extreme medical emergencies to make a living.“Midnight Family” also stars Yalitza Aparicio, Itzan Escamilla, José María de Tavira, Óscar Jaenada, Dolores Heredia, and Mariana Gómez.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentProminent Dubai-based satellite pay-TV and streaming service Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) is launching OSN Plus, a new premium streaming service that replaces its streaming app and marks OSN’s full-fledged entry into the MENA region’s increasingly crowded SVOD landscape.The move comes after OSN in January re-upped its long-term exclusive partnership with HBO, and expanded its rapport with NBCU to include more premium content from Peacock and Sky Studios. The company also has new deals for premium shows in place with Endeavor Content and All3Media, supplementing existing partnerships with Paramount, Warner Media, Sony, Discovery, MGM and Lionsgate.However, OSN recently lost the SVOD leverage it had under its exclusive deal with Disney, which will be launching Disney Plus in the region this summer and has rescinded the SVOD aspect of that arrangement.