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In a deal unveiled at Mipcom, Movistar Plus+ International, the prominent Spanish pay TV/SVOD platform’s sales division, announced a key sale to HBO Latin America of series “La Mesías,” hailed as the buzziest title at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September.

The series is written, directed and produced by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo of Suma Content, best known for their series “Veneno,” an HBO Max U.S. pickup, as well as “Paquita Salas,” sold to Netflix.

“La Mesías” marks the return of this creative duo, three years after their last release as directors and screenwriters, according to Movistar Plus+ Int’l.

Described as the most ambitious and complex project from the creative duo, widely known as Los Javis, “La Mesías” follows a family torn apart by the matriarch’s religious fanaticism.

Across seven gripping episodes, each with a runtime of just over an hour, the story spans various time periods,...

FIFA+ & Others License Football Doc ‘Brazil 2002: The Real Story’

World football-focused streamer FIFA+ has acquired 90-minute feature doc Brazil 2002: The Real Story for territories including Asia (excluding Japan), Turkey and New Zealand following a deal with distributor Abacus Media Rights. The doc has also sold to Canal+ Group for Canal+ Foot and myCanal (France); Sky Deutschland; Sky Italia; Dbs Satellite Services (Israel and West Bank); Supersport Africa (for Africa); Nos Portugal (Portugal and PALOPs); Movistar Plus+ (Spain); and Stan (Australia). Sky in the UK, Front Row Filmed Entertainment (Middle East) and Viaplay were unveiled as buyers back in February when the doc was announced. TelevisaUnivision also announced its acquisition of the film for North and South America...

Spanish thesp Luis Tosar has joined the cast of sci-fi comedy “Golem,” produced by Spain’s top indie house Aquí y Allí Films.

Directed by Juan González and Fernando Martínez (a.k.a. Burnin’ Percebes), the project toplines Brays Efe, star of Netflix hit series “Paquita Salas,” Goya Award winner Bruna Cusí (“Summer 1993”) and Javier Botet.

Aquí y Allí Films’ Pedro Hernández and Elamedia’s Roberto Butragueño produce the film, scheduled to roll in Madrid from August.

Elamedia will distribute in Spain.

Aquí y Allí is one of the five Spanish companies selected by Spain’s trade promotion board Icex and the Icaa film institute to pitch their production slates at Cannes’ Producers Network.

Burnin’ Percebes earned a reputation as a cult indie film pair with previous features “Searching for Meritxell,” “Ikea 2” and “The Lizard Queen.”

“Golem” narrates the story of two friends, Juan and David, who after an...

In an alignment of two of the most powerful forces in Spanish- language fiction, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, creators of “Veneno” and producers of “Cardo,” have joined forces with Movistar Plus, the pay TV/SVOD of Telefonica, to develop and produce a new series, “La Mesías.”

Presented on Tuesday in Madrid, like “Veneno,” the series has been written by Los Javis – as they are popularly known in Spain – and, according to Javier Ambrossi, the scale of the series marks the natural “next step” in the growth of Suma Content.

A Movistar Plus original series, the series will be written, directed and produced by Ambrossi and Calvo and made in collaboration with Suma Content, their new production label launched last year.

Movistar Plus International will handle international distribution of what rates from the get-go as one of the hottest Spanish series which will be brought onto the global market this year.

Geneva-based TV ratings analysis company The Wit has presented at MipCancun what it deems to be the current and potential buzz titles in Latin America.

Speaking to Variety, The Wit’s managing director Caroline Servy identified at least three trending themes: Empowered women, socially conscious stories and edgy elevated fiction, predominantly made by streamers, that “cuts through the clutter.”

Also ruling the field are bio-series with the latest led by “Maradona: Blessed Dream,” which broke recent records on Argentina’s Canal 9 before bowing worldwide on Amazon Prime on October 29.

Turkish series are wildly popular in the region but not as widely distributed by the major broadcasters in Brazil and Mexico, which are prodigious telenovela producers themselves, Servy noted. Expectations are high for Turkey’s number one show “Yargi” (“Family Secrets”), distributed by Madd Entertainment, which pits a defense lawyer against a prosecutor in a murder case involving their respective families.

Spanish showrunners Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, popularly known as Los Javis, are launching Suma Content, a new, Madrid-based but internationally operating independent production company which will replace their current, smaller label, Suma Latina.

The pair are already superstars in Spain and their star is rising abroad. They’re responsible for several recent hit productions including the Atresplayer Premium original series “Veneno,” sold to HBO Max in the U.S., and Netflix pickup “Paquita Salas,” and are regular contributors on the unscripted scene having appeared on Spain’s legendary singing competition “Operación Triunfo” and the recently launched “Drag Race España,” among others.

As the partners’ public profile flourished, it became clear that their operations had outgrown their existing production arrangements which often limited their output. One high-end drama series per year was no longer enough to satiate their ambitions, so a new arrangement was needed.

“At Suma Latina we were...

Leading Spanish sales company Latido Films has snapped up international sales rights to Violeta Salama’s directorial debut, “Alegria.” Argentina’s Leonardo Sbaraglia joins a stellar European-Latino cast that includes Mexico’s Cecilia Suárez (“La Casa de las Flores”), Spanish actresses Laia Manzanares (“Merlí”) and Mara Guill (“Caronte”) as well as French-born Sarah Perles.

“’Alegria’ is one of the opportunities a sales agency just cannot let pass,” Latido’s Antonio Saura declared. “It’s a funny, sad, charming and totally enjoyable story that dwells on the personal past of the film director, which is told with the ingenuity and charm of someone that cherishes memories and has accepted the multicultural richness of the little-known Spanish city of Melilla, where the story unfolds,” he added.

Seville-based La Claqueta, producer of Spain’s submission to the International Oscars race, “The Endless Trench,” co-produces the comedy with Clara Nieto’s newly-founded Powehi Films.

“Veneno” creators, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, aka Los Javis, are re-teaming with Atresmedia TV and Buendía Estudios to produce Atresplayer Premium original drama series “Cardo.”

Co-created by Claudia Costafreda, a script writer on “Veneno” and also “Cardo” director, and actress Ana Rujas (“Toc Toc”), the project will reflect on the feminine beauty canons existing in society and the emptiness of the generation born between the mid-80s and the 90s -those who are now around 30 years old.

Series project is produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with Buendía Estudios -the joint venture launched last year by Atresmedia and telco Telefónica’s paybox Movistar Plus- and Los Javis’ production outfit, Suma Latina.

The arrangement means that “Cardo” is backed by the same trio that produced “Veneno,” a series which has earned the biggest international impact to date of any Spanish drama screening on Atresplayer Premium, the Ott platform run by Spanish media conglom Atresmedia.

Last year’s release of the Atresplayer Premium pay TV platform involved stepping up Atresmedia’s bet on original TV content production, particularly in fiction series.

Part of its transformation process from traditional broadcasting group to a digital content producer, Atresplayer Premium is giving the group a new distribution window for Spain and the rest of the world.

With a remarkable presence in Spain and Latin America, Atresplayer Premium’s subscribers number has grown significantly from 140,000 at the end of last year to 253,000 in June.

“It’s clear that direct-to-consumer is the way to go. Atresplayer Premium will continue growing in 2021,” says María Rúa Aguete, executive director at research company Omdia.

“Atresplayer shows three different types of programming: Linear broadcasting of the group’s TV channels, previews of programs that will later release on free-to-air, and originals,” explains José Antonio Antón, director of programming, content and digital at Atresmedia.

With Atresplayer Premium,...

Irene Anula, a star of breakout Spanish TV hit “Vis a Vis” (“Locked Up”), is attached to topline Aitor Uribarri’s survival thriller “Kintsugi,” which Spain’s Mano Negra Films will introduce to potential co-production partners at the Locarno Festival’s Match Me! forum.

Along with “Lady Laura,” starring “Locked Up’s” Itziar Castro and written and directed by Manuel Aguilar, “Kintsugi” marks another step up in production ambition at the Seville-based Mano Negra, which producer Daniel Mendez founded in 2010. First focusing on documentaries – most recently Vanessa Benítez’s “Rota n’ Roll” (2017); Guillermo Rocamora’s “Freedom is a Big Word” (2018) – Mano Negra moved into minority international fiction co-production, boarding Argentine Juan Schnitman’S upcoming “La sangre.” “Lady Laura” and “Kintsugi” mark its first two full-blown lead fiction feature productions.

“Kintsugi” stars Anula as a fugitive on the lam in the forests of wild high mountains, who will have to decide...

Fiction titles “La luna en tu mirada,” “Shine,” “Código Alfa” and “Indie Odyssey” figure among 22 projects selected for development after a first call of proposes by Mediapro Labs, the new talent incubator created by Spanish TV giant The Mediapro Studio.

Launched in December, Mediapro Labs aims to identify audiovisual talent worth associating with and to produce new ideas and digital formats.

Since then, the Madrid-based incubator has received more than five hundred ideas spread over a wide range of categories, taking in fiction, documentary, e-sports and entertainment. In a written statement, it praised the project creators’ “extraordinary creative talent.”

Directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, popularly known as the The Javis, Mediapro Labs has primarily focused on the selection of fiction projects.

The Javis’ own outfit Suma Latina will team with The Mediapro Studio to produce the winning project, which will be unveiled shortly, according to Maya Maidagan, Mediapro Labs co-director.

Netflix has released their list of new titles coming in the month of June, as well as a last call for everything getting ready to leave the streaming service.

Highlights arriving this month include the fifth season of Netflix’s popular psychological thriller series “Black Mirror,” coming June 5, and Hilary Swank’s thriller “I Am Mother, coming June 7. And whether or not you were alive in 1993 when the original TV mini-series “Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City” came out, you can still appreciate the remake starring Ellen Page as Laura Linney’s on-screen daughter when it arrives June 7.

This month is the last chance to watch what is arguably the best moon mission movie, “Apollo 13,” starring the ultimate dream team, Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise. Other classics getting the boot include “Legally Blonde” and its sequel “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde,” along with “Friday the 13th” and “Pretty in Pink.

Madrid — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings officially inaugurated the U.S. streaming giant’s Madrid Production Hub, its first European production center, on Thursday morning.

While the hub’s first three sound stages look impressively efficient, they are designed principally for TV work, not gargantuan movie blockbuster production.

So it was Netflix’s plans for Spanish production which rreally made an impact at the inauguration. Francisco Ramos, Netflix vice president original contents, revealed two new Spanish series: “El Inocente,” created by Oriol Paulo, produced by Belén Atienza and Sandra Hermida; and “Los favoritos de Midas,” co-creted by Mateo Gil, starring Luis Tosar, and produced by Adrián Guerra and Nuria Valls at Nostromo Pictures.

Based on a best-seller by Harlan Coben, written by Jordi Vallejo, Paulo and Guillém Clúa, “El inocente” turns on an ex-con, Mateo, who nine years before accidentally killed a man, who, now out of jail, and with his...

Santiago De Compostela, Spain — Continuing its push to produce local content in Spain, Netflix has announced the commission of new original series “Hache,” created and written by “Velvet Collection” scribe Verónica Fernández.

Her 2001 feature “El Bola” earned the writer a Spanish Academy Goya nomination for best original screenplay.

The series’ eight hour-long episodes are based on real events surrounding Helena, a woman at the heart of 1960s heroin trafficking in Barcelona. Helena will be played by Goya-nominated actress Adriana Ugarte, joined on screen by Javier Rey, who this year took home the best actor award at Malaga Film Festival for his performance in “Sin Fin.”

The series is scheduled for release in more than 190 territories in 2019.

Since first launching in Spain in 2015, Netflix has embraced local content production. “Hache” will be the VOD platform’s fifth original Spanish fiction series production. The first, “Cable Girls,” launched in April of 2016. Since then “Elite,...