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Oro

Director: Agustin Diaz Yanes

Writer: Arturo Perez-Reverte

One of Spain’s most unappreciated directors (at least as far as international renown) is Agustin Diaz Yanes. If you haven’t seen his 2001 sophomore film Don’t Tempt Me starring Penelope Cruz and Victoria Abril as representatives of Heaven and Hell duking it out over the soul of Demain Bichir’s broody boxer, you’re missing out. After the large scale international co-production Alatriste (2006) starring Viggo Mortensen (see set pic above), Yanes reunited with Abril for the revenge thriller Walking Vengeance (aka Just Walking) in 2008. He’s been quiet since, but will be adapting another work by celebrated author Arturto Perez-Reverte (who penned the novel upon which Alatriste is based) this year with Oro, a period adventure inspired by 16th century Spanish conquistadors searching for gold in the Amazon jungle. Sony Pictures Spain just recently boarded the project which will star...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 19, 2014

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril get to know each other in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

The rambunctious 1990 dark comedy Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s (Broken Embraces) colorful and controversial tribute to the pleasures and perils of Stockholm syndrome.

The film stars Antonio Banderas (Haywire) as an unbalanced but alluring former mental patient and Victoria Abril (Walking Vengeance) as the B-movie and porn star he takes prisoner in the hopes of convincing her to marry him.

A highly unconventional romance that came on the spike heels of Almodóvar’s international sensation Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, this is a splashy, sexy central work in the career of one of the international cinema’s most beloved and provocative auteurs, radiantly shot by the director’s great cinematographer José Luis Alcaine...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Dec. 17, 2013

Price: DVD $30.99, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $40.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Matt Damon (Promised Land) looks for a better life in the science-fiction movie Elysium.

The R-rated film is set in a future when Earth has been ruined and left for the have-nots. The haves have moved off planet to a luxurious space station called Elysium that orbits around Earth. On Earth, there’s hunger, poverty and sickness, but on Elysium, all illnesses can be healed and no one starves.

After a factory accident gives Damon’s Max of a death sentence in just a few days, he agrees to help an underground group infiltrate Elysium in an effort of opening it up to everyone.

Jodie Foster (Carnage) stars as the evil Delacourt, who controls Elysium; Diego Luna (Walking Vengeance) is Julio, the leader of the underworld; William Fichtner (Drive Angry) plays John Carlyle, the businessman...

Funny or Die Presents director Matt Piedmont will soon be directing Will Ferrell in the Spanish-language comedy Casa de mi padre. That's odd enough, and now Ferrell has two great co-stars: Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, who are making quite the career of working in films together. (They've acted opposite one another in Y tu mamá también and Rudo y Cursi, and exec produced films like Sin Nombre and Sólo quiero caminar, in which Luna also starred.) But working opposite Farrell could be something altogether different. THR reports the news, and says that the story, which is being kept quiet, will be subtitled and "told in an overly dramatic telenovela style." Diego Luna will play Ferrell's brother, while Gael Garcia Bernal plays "a family friend." Also in the cast are "Genesis Rodriguez as Ferrell's love interest, Pedro Armendariz Jr., Hector Jimenez and Adrian Martinez." A quick review of photos...

Jose Maria Yazpik has been cast in a pair of indie roles.

The Mexican actor, who recently appeared in Guillermo Arriaga's "The Burning Plain," will star in Jorge Fons' "El Atentado" and Rodrigo Cortes' "Buried," opposite Ryan Reynolds.

Based on the historical novel "El Expediente del Atentado," "Atentado" tells the true story of Arnulfo Arroyo (Yazpik), a young terrorist who in 1897 attempts to assassinate Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz. The film also stars Daniel Jimenez-Cacho and Irene Azuela and is being produced by Diego Lopez.

Filming has begun in Mexico City.

Written by Chris Sparling, "Buried" stars Reynolds as a civilian contractor in Iraq who awakens in a coffin under the desert, armed only with a cell phone, a candle and a knife. Yazpik will record the voice of an Iraqi insurgent who orchestrates the kidnap-for-ransom.

Peter Safran is producing with Adrian Guerra and Alejandro Miranda of Spain's Versus Entertainment.

The 24th Guadalajara Film Festival Awards went to Gerardo Tort's Viaje Redondo (Round Trip) and Peruvian Claudia Llosa's La teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) in the Mexican and Latin American feature film sections, respectively. Voy a explotar (I'm Going to Explode) from Canana, directed by Gerardo Naranjo won for first work in the Latin American section, even though it was actually his second work. Naranjo's first work was Drama/Mex. Carlos Enderle's Cronicas Chilanga won for Mexican first work, Mexican screenplay, and best actor award going to Patricio Castillo. Other winners included La passion de Gabriel, Corazon del Tiempo for best director, and Retorno a Hansala also for best director. The special jury prize went to Aquele Querido Mes de Agosto (This Dear Month of August). At the Coproduction Meetings awards went to Sergio Teubal for his project El dedo and to Leandro Fabrizzi of Puerto Rico for Filiberto.

During the days of the festival, The red carpet was unfurled for the world debut of The Perfect Game by William Dear and producers David Salzberg and Christian Tureaud. Encounters with the media were held for the movies Corazón del tiempo, Niño Pez, La Última y nos Vamos, and Amor sin Fin.

Otra Película de Huevos y un Pollo by brothers Rodolfo and Gabriel Riva Palacios surprised many as the film chosen to inaugurate FLCG24.

Encounters with the media were held for the feature films Voy a Explotar, Camino which won six Goya prizes, including best movie, best director and best actress, and Rabioso Sol Rabioso Cielo.

The keynote speech Sunday March 22 under the aegis of IV Digital Space in Guadalajara will be a lecture by Peter Broderick, The New World of Distribution.

Broderick, President of Paradigm Consulting, is known as one of the leading experts in the development of creative strategies for digital distribution. His innovative viewpoints have contributed to both producers and filmmakers multiplying audiences and revenue and successfully taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the digital age.

The first day's activities included Gerardo Tort presenting his movie Viaje Redondo, director and scriptwriter Alicia Scherson and star Diego Noguera presenting the Chilean movie Turistas to the press, a competitor in the Ibero-American Feature-length Fiction category.

The Gala event featured Sólo Quiero Caminar, and afterward the Guadalajara Prize was awarded to Guadalajara's own actor, director and producer Gael Garcia Bernal. Special event Cinelandia began with Manu Chao presenting the films that have touched his life, including Los Olvidados by Luis Buñuel and Princesas by fellow Spaniard Fernando Leon de Aranoa. ...

The Panorama section will comprise a total of 50 titles with about a third of those being documentaries and here's the first 21 of the list. Oddly enough Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin' will be playing although it's having it's premier at Sundance. Another film we reported on, Uli Lommel's Absolute Evil starring David Carradine will also be playing, and I'm still wondering how the hell they got that in there.

You can check out the list of all 21 titles after the break.

Absolute Evil by Ulli Lommel, USA (world premiere)

With David Carradine, Carolyn Neff, Ulli Lommel, Chris Kiesa

Ander by Roberto Castón, Spain (directorial debut and world premiere)

With Josean Bengoetxea, Cristhian Esquivel, Mamen Rivera, Pilar Rodríguez, Leire Ucha

At Stake by Iwan Setiawan, Muhammad Ichsan, Lucky Kuswandi, Ucu Agustin, Ani Ema Susanti, Indonesia

Panorama Dokumente

Coyote by Chema Rodríguez, Spain (world premiere)

Panorama Dokumente

Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man) by Wolfgang Murnberger,...