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David Desola

Meghann Fahy in Drop (2025)
Banquet: Meghann Fahy teams with The Platform director for supernatural thriller
Meghann Fahy in Drop (2025)
Fresh off of starring in the thriller Drop, which received some good word-of-mouth and an 8/10 review from JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray but still didn’t manage to make much money at the box office (hopefully it’s having more success with its digital release), Meghann Fahy has signed on to star in another thriller, one called Banquet. This time the thrills are going to be of the supernatural sort, and Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia is at the helm.

Back in 2020, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia made his feature directorial debut (after a couple decades of making short films) with the thriller The Platform, which was released through the Netflix streaming service. You can read my very positive review of that film at This Link, but the gist of it is that I was very impressed and was left eager to see what Gaztelu-Urrutia would make next. He was assembling a film called Rich Flu before the 2023 Hollywood strikes,...
See full article at JoBlo.com
  • 5/8/2025
  • by Cody Hamman
  • JoBlo.com
Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Rich Flu (2024)
Rich Flu (2025) Movie Ending Explained & Themes Analyzed: Does Laura Survive the Flu?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Rich Flu (2024)
“Rich Flu” (2025) is a drama film that revolves around the themes of class conflicts. It is co-written and directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, the Spanish filmmaker known for his work on the “Platform” films for Netflix. This is his first English-language directorial, which stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the leading role. She plays Laura Palmer, a wealthy woman, living in a world where the rich are affected by a mysterious virus. Rafe Spall and César Domboy star alongside Winstead in key supporting roles.

Rich Flu (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia directed the film from a script he co-wrote with Pedro Rivero, Sam Steiner, and David Desola. It is set in a world where rich people empty their fortunes for fear of death.

What happens in Rich Flu?

“Rich Flu” follows Laura Palmer (Winstead), a high-powered, filthy-rich executive. She has a strained relationship with her husband Toni (Spall) and their daughter...
See full article at High on Films
  • 3/20/2025
  • by Akash Deshpande
  • High on Films
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Sitges 2024: ‘Rich Flu’ Review
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Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rafe Spall, Timothy Spall, Lorraine Bracco, Dixie Egerickx | Written by David Desola, Sam Steiner | Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

The new film from Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, who made Netflix horror hit The Platform, Rich Flu is an English language Contagion-esque thriller about a deadly virus that only affects the super-rich. Given that intriguing premise, the end result is something of a mixed bag, but it’s not without its moments and it’s solidly anchored by a terrific lead performance.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Laura, a Hollywood executive who’s introduced listening to a series of movie pitches, one of which sounds quite similar to the film we’re actually watching. The last to pitch ends up being her ex-husband Tony (Rafe Spall), who’s unhappy that she’s about to leave Barcelona and relocate to London with their teenage daughter Anna (Dixie Egerickx), and makes...
See full article at Nerdly
  • 10/15/2024
  • by Matthew Turner
  • Nerdly
Óscar Jaenada, Natalia Tena, Hovik Keuchkerian, and Milena Smit in The Platform 2 (2024)
“The Platform 2” Debuts on Netflix: A Kafkaesque Horror Thriller with Profound Social Commentary
Óscar Jaenada, Natalia Tena, Hovik Keuchkerian, and Milena Smit in The Platform 2 (2024)
“The Platform 2” is a movie directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia starring Milena Smit, Hovik Keuchkerian, Natalia Tena y Óscar Jaenada.

Dive into the harrowing depths of “The Platform 2,” a nightmarish odyssey exploring themes of struggle, social justice, and religion across 333 torturous levels. This brutal allegory masterfully portrays life, social stratification, indoctrination, societal norms, and humanity’s ceaseless quest to quell an insatiable hunger. As the much-anticipated sequel to the 2019 Netflix hit, “The Platform 2” loses some of the original’s shock value but compensates with superior technical prowess and a well-crafted script, making it a worthy successor in a genre-defying cinematic landscape.

The film stands out at a technical level, showcasing the director’s adept use of cinematic tools to immerse the audience in a surreal, harrowing nightmare reflective of the human condition.

Plot Synopsis

The story plunges us into an unsettling experiment where prisoners inhabit various levels of a vertical prison.
See full article at Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
  • 10/4/2024
  • by Veronica Loop
  • Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
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The Platform 2 offers up a second, less satisfying helping of the same meal
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The allegorical simplicity of Netflix’s The Platform makes it brilliant—a sequel seems antithetical. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform 2 needlessly complicates the original’s food-fighting take on hierarchical class governance. Religious iconography influences heavy-handed zealotry, while callbacks and returning characters feel out of place. Gaztelu-Urrutia’s expansion feels redundant and over-explained,...
See full article at avclub.com
  • 10/4/2024
  • by Matt Donato
  • avclub.com
10 New Movies on Netflix in October 2024
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When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Netflix is ready with an entertainment-packed October this year. The upcoming month will see the return of one of Netflix’s best original films The Platform and also new brilliant movies like Don’t Move and Woman of the Hour. Just like every month, Netflix is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the 10 movies coming to Netflix in October 2024.

The Bad Guys: Haunted Heist (October 3)

The Bad Guys: Haunted Heist is an upcoming animated Halloween heist comedy special directed by Kevin Peaty. Based on the 2022 film titled The Bad Guys written by Etan Cohen and the children’s graphic novel by Aaron Blabley, the upcoming Netflix special follows the Bad Guys after they steal from a haunted mansion but when Wolf is haunted by the owner of the mansion they have to return the loot.
See full article at Cinema Blind
  • 9/29/2024
  • by Kulwant Singh
  • Cinema Blind
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The Platform 2 clip gives a preview of Netflix thriller ahead of October premiere
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Back in 2020, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia made his feature directorial debut (after a couple decades of making short films) with the thriller The Platform, which was released through the Netflix streaming service. You can read my very positive review of that film at This Link, but the gist of it is that I was very impressed and was left eager to see what Gaztelu-Urrutia would make next. He was assembling a film called Rich Flu before the strikes last year, but it turns out that the next movie we’ll see from him is a sequel to his debut, The Platform 2. This one will also be heading out into the world courtesy of Netflix – and the streamer will be releasing the film on October 4th, helping kick off the Halloween season. With that date just a couple of weeks away, Netflix has shared a clip from the film, and that can...
See full article at JoBlo.com
  • 9/19/2024
  • by Cody Hamman
  • JoBlo.com
Netflix Dystopian Thriller Sequel The Platform 2 Gets New Clip Courtesy of Geeked Week
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Get your knife and fork ready, as we now have a new look at the upcoming Netflix dystopian thriller sequel The Platform 2, courtesy of Netflix Geeked Week. A follow-up to one of the biggest hits on the streaming platform, The Platform 2 will once again take audiences to a place that many likely do not want to go, as we return to the so-called "Vertical Self-Management Center, a prison that finds residents living on different levels of a giant tower where a platform full of food slowly makes its way from top to bottom.

You can check out the newly released clip and the official synopsis for The Platform 2 below.

As a mysterious leader imposes their rule in the Platform, a new resident becomes embroiled in the battle against this controversial method to fight the brutal feeding system. But when eating from the wrong plate becomes a death sentence,...
See full article at MovieWeb
  • 9/19/2024
  • by Jonathan Fuge
  • MovieWeb
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Netflix & Chills Is Back This Halloween Season with New Slate of Horror Programming
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Netflix is back this Halloween season with a packed “Netflix and Chills” lineup, packing in the horror offerings to maximize your spooky season. While you can also expect the arrival of horror favorites getting added to the library, the streamer has unveiled its original “Netflix and Chills” programming this morning.

Embrace your fears and stay tuned throughout the months of September and October, with Timo Tjahjanto‘s bone-crunching, ultra-violent The Shadow Strays, slasher Time Cut, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, and more being added all Halloween season long.

Here’s the “Netflix and Chills” schedule this year…

Sector 36 – September 13

Inspired by true events, several children go missing from a basti (slum) in Sector 36. A determined police officer must now face off with a cunning serial killer as a chilling investigation and dark secrets unfold

Director: Aditya Nimbalkar

Writer: Bodhayan Roychaudhury

Producers: Dinesh Vijan & Jyoti Deshpande

Banner: Maddock Films...
See full article at bloody-disgusting.com
  • 9/12/2024
  • by Meagan Navarro
  • bloody-disgusting.com
The Platform 2: Release Date, Cast, Story, Trailer & Everything We Know
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Quick Links The Platform 2 Latest News The Platform 2 Release Date The Platform 2 Cast The Platform 2 Story The Platform 2 Trailer The Platform 2: Further News & Info "The Platform 2" is confirmed by Netflix, and will premiere in October 2024. The sequel features a new visual motif with an abundance of red lighting. The storyline shifts to explore social and political problems as "The Platform" ends.

The Spanish social horror film The Platform found an international audience on Netflix in 2019, and now it is being followed by a sequel, The Platform 2. Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia from a screenplay by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, The Platform is set within a futuristic prison facility in which inmates are housed on various platformed levels. Conflict arises between the levels because the inmates are fed by a single descending platform that stops briefly at each level and becomes more and more...
See full article at ScreenRant
  • 7/12/2024
  • by Dalton Norman
  • ScreenRant
The Platform 2 Trailer Reveals Gripping First Look at Netflix Dystopian Thriller Sequel
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The Platform 2 debuts on Netflix on October 4, 2024. Director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia returns to helm the sequel, introducing a new cast of characters in the dystopian thriller. Fans have expressed a mix of excitement and disgust over the trailer, eagerly anticipating the sequel.

Who's ready for seconds? The first trailer for The Platform 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest hits on Netflix. The trailer for the follow-up has now been served up and teases more of the grit and grime that turned stomachs in the first dystopian thriller, as well as revealing that the movie will debut on the streaming platform on October 4, 2024. The teaser takes us back into the world of The Platform and the so-called "Vertical Self-Management Center, which finds residents living on different levels of a giant tower where a platform full of food slowly makes its way from top to bottom. A helpful tip.
See full article at MovieWeb
  • 7/11/2024
  • by Jonathan Fuge
  • MovieWeb
Emilio Buale and Ivan Massagué in The Platform (2019)
The Platform 2 trailer: Netflix thriller sequel starts streaming in October
Emilio Buale and Ivan Massagué in The Platform (2019)
Back in 2020, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia made his feature directorial debut (after a couple decades of making short films) with the thriller The Platform, which was released through the Netflix streaming service. You can read my very positive review of that film at This Link, but the gist of it is that I was very impressed and was left eager to see what Gaztelu-Urrutia would make next. He was assembling a film called Rich Flu before the strikes last year, but it turns out that the next movie we’ll see from him is a sequel to his debut, The Platform 2. This one will also be heading out into the world courtesy of Netflix – and the streamer has just revealed that they will be releasing the film on October 4th, helping kick off the Halloween season. Along with the release date comes the unveiling of a trailer for The Platform 2,...
See full article at JoBlo.com
  • 7/11/2024
  • by Cody Hamman
  • JoBlo.com
The Platform 2: Cast, Story & Everything We Know
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Quick Links The Platform 2 Latest News The Platform 2 Is Confirmed The Platform 2 Cast The Platform 2 Story The Platform 2: Further News & Info "The Platform 2" is confirmed by Netflix, and may have a 2024 release. The sequel features a new visual motif with an abundance of red lighting. The storyline shifts to explore social and political problems as "The Platform" ends.

The Spanish social horror film The Platform found an international audience on Netflix in 2019, and now it is being followed by a sequel, The Platform 2. Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia from a screenplay by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, The Platform is set within a futuristic prison facility in which inmates are housed on various platformed levels. Conflict arises between the levels because the inmates are fed by a single descending platform that stops briefly at each level and becomes more and more picked over as it moves further down.
See full article at ScreenRant
  • 4/24/2024
  • by Dalton Norman
  • ScreenRant
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The Platform 2 images offer a look at Netflix thriller sequel
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Back in 2020, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia made his feature directorial debut (after a couple decades of making short films) with the thriller The Platform, which was released through the Netflix streaming service. You can read my very positive review of that film at This Link, but the gist of it is that I was very impressed and was left eager to see what Gaztelu-Urrutia would make next. He was assembling a film called Rich Flu before the strikes last year, but it turns out that the next movie we’ll see from him is a sequel to his debut, The Platform 2. This one will also be making its way out into the world through Netflix, and today a pair of first look images have arrived online to give us a glimpse at what The Platform 2 has in store for us. You can take a look at those at the bottom of this article.
See full article at JoBlo.com
  • 4/18/2024
  • by Cody Hamman
  • JoBlo.com
Netflix Announces The Platform Sequel, Reveals First Look
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Streaming giant Netflix has revealed our first look at the upcoming sequel to the 2019 Spanish science fiction horror outing, The Platform. Taking to social media to share the first images from the mysterious project, the sequel will take us back to the dystopia that so successfully disturbed audiences a few years ago. Check out the first look at The Platform sequel below...

The story is far from over... Here's your first look at our sequel to The Platform, the most popular Spanish film in Netflix history, once again directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. pic.twitter.com/onEdPxCxHD — Netflix (@netflix) May 11, 2023

“The story is far from over...” teases the caption alongside the images, which find two people, a large man and a small girl, trapped in the same kind of concrete cell where the first movie took place. While plot details (and pretty much everything else) regarding The Platform follow-up currently remain a mystery,...
See full article at MovieWeb
  • 5/12/2023
  • by Jonathan Fuge
  • MovieWeb
Rich Flu: Mary Elizabeth Winstead replaces Rosamund Pike in virus thriller
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Last year, we heard that Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) would be starring in The Platform director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s virus thriller Rich Flu, and would be joined in the cast by Daniel Brühl (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Macaulay Culkin (American Horror Story). Pike, Brühl, and Culkin have since all had to depart the project due to scheduling issues – but Deadline reports that Rich Flu is now filming, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) taking over the role that once belonged to Pike.

In the cast with Winstead are Rafe Spall (The Big Short), Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos), Dixie Egerickx (The Secret Garden), Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), Cesar Domboy (Outlander), Dayana Esebe (LA Star), and Richard Sammel (3 Days To Kill).

Spencer and Jackie director Pablo Larraín is producing Rich Flu with Juan de Dios Larraín, through their Fabula banner. Gaztelu-Urrutia is also producing the film,...
See full article at JoBlo.com
  • 2/17/2023
  • by Cody Hamman
  • JoBlo.com
‘Rich Flu’: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rafe & Tim Spall, Lorraine Bracco & Jonah Hauer-King Among Cast For Fabula Thriller Filming In Spain & Senegal — EFM
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Exclusive: The cast of thriller Rich Flu has been set with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Star Wars: Ahsoka), Rafe Spall (The Big Short), Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos), Dixie Egerickx (The Secret Garden), Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), Cesar Domboy (Outlander), Dayana Esebe (LA Star), and Richard Sammel (3 Days To Kill).

Filming has been taking place in Barcelona, Fuerteventura, and Senegal on the movie, which heralds from Pablo Larraín and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula banner, producers of Spencer, Jackie and No.

Sierra/Affinity is handling international sales and has the project available to buyers at this week’s EFM in Berlin. CAA Media Finance and XYZ Films are co-repping domestic.

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia (The Platform) is directing from a script written by Pedro Rivero, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, David Desola and Sam Steiner.

Also producing are Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls via their Nostromo Pictures banner; Carlos Juárez...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 2/17/2023
  • by Andreas Wiseman
  • Deadline Film + TV
Daniel Brühl
Daniel Bruhl, Macaulay Culkin and Rosamund Pike to Star in Pandemic Thriller ‘Rich Flu’
Daniel Brühl
Daniel Brühl, Macaulay Culkin and Rosamund Pike have joined the cast of the pandemic thriller “Rich Flu.”

The film will be directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia from a script written by Pedro Rivero, Gaztelu-Urrutia. and David Desola, with revisions by Sam Steiner.

The synopsis for “Rich Flu” is as follows: a strange disease is killing off some of the richest and most influential people on the planet. First it was the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires and so on progressively…. Now it threatens to strike anyone with any sort of fortune, and no one knows where it might end. With the whole world panicking and our very way of life headed for collapse, people are trying to flood the market with assets the world no longer wants. How far would you go to save your skin when the wealth that made the world go round suddenly becomes its most dangerous commodity?

Also...
See full article at The Wrap
  • 5/27/2022
  • by Umberto Gonzalez
  • The Wrap
Daniel Brühl and Macaulay Culkin Join Pandemic Thriller ‘Rich Flu’
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Daniel Brühl and Macaulay Culkin have joined the cast of Spanish director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s pandemic themed thriller “Rich Flu.”

They will be starring opposite Rosamund Pike, who had previously been announced as the lead.

Cameras are now set to roll this fall on the high-concept social thriller in which a deadly disease starts killing off the richest people on the planet. At first it strikes the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires, and so on.

With the whole world panicking and headed for collapse, people are trying to flood the market with assets they no longer want, in hopes of saving their skin.

“Rich Flu” will be the second feature for Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, whose 2019 directorial debut “The Platform” was awarded best film, and best F/X at the Sitges’ Intl. Fantastic Film Festival.

“The Platform” was first released theatrically in Spain in 2019 and subsequently dropped on Netflix globally in early 2020 and...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 5/27/2022
  • by Nick Vivarelli
  • Variety Film + TV
Daniel Brühl & Macaulay Culkin Board ‘Rich Flu’ From Pablo Larraín’s Fabula – Cannes
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Daniel Brühl and Macaulay Culkin have joined the cast of the Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia directed thriller, Rich Flu, which we told you about back at EFM with Rosamund Pike attached to star. Production is expected to start in the fall.

In the film, a strange disease is killing off some of the richest and most influential people on the planet. First it was the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires and so on progressively. Now it threatens to strike anyone with any sort of fortune, and no one knows where it might end. With the whole world panicking and our very way of life headed for collapse, people are trying to flood the market with assets the world no longer wants.

Pedro Rivero, Gaztelu-Urrutia, and David Desola wrote the screenplay with revisions by Sam Steiner. Sierra/Affinity is handling foreign sales and has the project available to buyers at this year’s Cannes Film Market.
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 5/27/2022
  • by Anthony D'Alessandro
  • Deadline Film + TV
Emilio Buale and Ivan Massagué in The Platform (2019)
The Platform Ending Explained: Are You Going To Eat That?
Emilio Buale and Ivan Massagué in The Platform (2019)
Netflix's "The Platform," directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, is a high-concept, single-location thriller with gross-out elements, yet it also manages to be a thought-provoking inquiry into the nature of social hierarchies, consumerism, and altruism. With a Spanish-language script by David Desola and Pedro Rivero based on Desola's story, "The Platform" stars Iván Massagué as Goreng, a man who wakes on Level 48 of a towering, prison-like facility where a platform floats hundreds of floors, offering the two occupants on each one two minutes to gorge themselves on food before it moves down to the next level.

They're in El hoyo, which translates as "the Hole" or "the Pit," and like the doughnut hole in...

The post The Platform Ending Explained: Are You Going to Eat That? appeared first on /Film.
See full article at Slash Film
  • 4/4/2022
  • by Joshua Meyer
  • Slash Film
Netflix and Chills: Every New Scary Movie and TV Show Streaming on Netflix for Halloween Time
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Netflix has a massive lineup for this Halloween season. The streaming giant has announced their annual Netflix and Chills slate of movies, TV series, documentaries and kids' programming for the spookiest time of the year. With everything from highly anticipated original series like The Haunting of Bly Manor, Ratched and Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 2 to fresh new scares in movies like The Babysitter: Killer Queen and Hubie Halloween, Netflix has a little something for everyone to bite into.

#Alive - September 8

In #Alive, Oh Jun-u wakes up and finds a note from his mom that says his family went on vacation without him. He turns on TV and the news anchor says that an outbreak is spreading nationwide, with the infected showing signs of cannibalism. Suddenly wifi is disconnected and what Jun-u can only hear is his father's message that he must stay alive. The world goes crazy and everything is destroyed by the zombies.
See full article at MovieWeb
  • 9/10/2020
  • by Brian B.
  • MovieWeb
Peter Greenaway
The Platform Review
Peter Greenaway
Debut director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform (El Hoyo) makes no apology for its anti-capitalist stance, stark visuals and social metaphors, which in today’s coronavirus era make for very sober and self-reflective viewing. It highlights people’s greed and selfishness in desperate and restrictive circumstances and ironically revolves around food. Indeed it is highly topical, with food stockpiling from stores set against messages on social media about “being kind” and thoughtful.

Much like a cross between Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover with its lavish cooking scenes at the start that have a whiff of malaise about them with their ominous carcasses on display, the decadent and destructive nature of Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, and the slow-burn dawning of eternal entrapment within four walls like Lenny Abrahamson’s Room and Vincenzo Natali’s Cube, The Platform is instantly designed to unsettle, before the characters have fathomed their situation.
See full article at HeyUGuys.co.uk
  • 4/4/2020
  • by Lisa Giles-Keddie
  • HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Platform – Review
Ivan Massagué in Cerca de tu casa (2016)
Review by Stephen Tronicek

The Platform, released on Netflix into this harsh climate of ours, starts with a premise so fiendishly simple all screenwriters worth their salt (including myself) should be kicking themselves. Goreng (Ivan Massagué), a man looking to obtain a quick academic document, wakes up in “the hole,” a prison/indentured servitude area. It is set up vertically. The hole in the middle of the room reveals an endless chasm of other rooms. Each day, a platform lowers down carrying a tray of food. The problem? Every level above Goreng has already gotten to eat off of it first. That’s a smart idea. It’s visually interesting and the metaphor is easy to grasp. If there’s a finite amount of food, what’s to stop the people above you from getting to it first?

But better ideas have been squandered. Built as a “contained-thriller,” The Platform...
See full article at WeAreMovieGeeks.com
  • 3/26/2020
  • by Movie Geeks
  • WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ed Harris, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Octavia Spencer, and Tilda Swinton in Snowpiercer (2013)
The Platform Review
Ed Harris, John Hurt, Jamie Bell, Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Octavia Spencer, and Tilda Swinton in Snowpiercer (2013)
You can add Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s The Platform to the universe’s ever-growing list of directorial debuts that showcase anything but novice skill sets. As Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer and Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise so exquisitely pull the curtain back on humanity’s cruelest impulses, Urrutia embraces dystopian monstrosity through elementary necessities. Homo sapiens are courteous beings when benefits are personal and stakes are lowest, but thrust into survival desperation? Writers David Desola and Pedro Rivero obscure mealtime fulfillment with selfishness, vulgarity, brutality, and – most importantly – a suggestion that your neighbors would rip one’s heart out if it meant another day alive. Urrutia, fiercely, is an architect of horrific immorality with the calmest demeanor.

In an alternate future, everyman Goreng (Ivan Massagué) enrolls himself in a research project with vague descriptions. Isolation is promised, he’s allowed one item (a Don Quixote novel), and he’ll be sharing quarters with an unnamed companion.
See full article at We Got This Covered
  • 3/21/2020
  • by Matt Donato
  • We Got This Covered
Emilio Buale and Ivan Massagué in The Platform (2019)
‘The Platform’ Review: Netflix Horror Movie Flips ‘Cube’ Into Cannibalistic Allegory for Capitalism
Emilio Buale and Ivan Massagué in The Platform (2019)
. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” is not a subtle film. But these are unsubtle times, with unsubtle problems, and the most alarming thing about this grimly affecting Spanish allegory — which literalizes capitalism’s dehumanizing verticality with twice the gross-out terror of “Parasite,” and almost half of that masterpiece’s furious grace — is that it sometimes doesn’t seem like an allegory at all.

Like “Cube,” “Saw,” and even “The Exterminating Angel” before it, “The Platform” is the sort of (largely) single-location horror movie that’s defined by its premise. Somewhere in the not-so-distant-future — or perhaps a Camus-esque alternate version of now — hundreds of people are trapped in a narrow cement skyscraper that has more levels than any of the prisoners housed there could ever hope to count. The company that owns the place has branded it a “Vertical Self-Management Center,” but its occupants refer to it only as “The Pit,...
See full article at Indiewire
  • 3/17/2020
  • by David Ehrlich
  • Indiewire
Almacenados (2015)
‘Almacenados’ Team Reunites on ‘The Containment,’ Preps ‘The Platform’ Series
Almacenados (2015)
Mexican filmmakers Jack and Yossy Zagha Kababie (“Almacenados”) are back at Ventana Sur’s Blood Window with “The Containment,” an English-language possession thriller set in the bayous of Louisiana, which participated as a project at Blood Window and Bifan in 2018.

“The Containment” is co-written by Yossy and breakout Basque scribe David Desola, whose last feature “The Platform” won Toronto’s Midnight Madness Audience Award, took the top prize at Sitges Film Festival and was just yesterday nominated for three Spanish Academy Goya Awards, including best original screenplay. Desola has worked with the Zaghas before, notably on 2017’s Mexican Academy Award-winning and Morelia Best Feature “Almacenados.”

Zagha’s Mexico City-based Avanti Pictures also owns the TV series rights to “The Platform,” which they are developing with Desola now alongside another feature project the three will team on. Both projects are being writing in and planned to be shot in English.

“We...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 12/3/2019
  • by Jamie Lang
  • Variety Film + TV
Antonio de la Torre and Belén Cuesta in The Endless Trench (2019)
‘Pain and Glory’, ‘While At War’ lead Goya nominations
Antonio de la Torre and Belén Cuesta in The Endless Trench (2019)
Other nominees include ‘Intemperie’, ’The Endless Trench’ and ’Fire Will Come’.

Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War leads the nominations for Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards but will face-off against Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory at the ceremony on January 25 in Malaga.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Amenábar’s Spanish Civil War drama has secured 17 nominations while Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical film has 16 nods.

While At War has proved a box office hit following its debut at Toronto, ranking as Spain’s third highest-grossing domestic film of 2019 and taking more than $11.3m to date.

Pain and Glory...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 12/2/2019
  • by 1101324¦Elisabet Cabeza¦0¦
  • ScreenDaily
Pedro Almodóvar
‘Pain and Glory,’ ‘While at War,’ ‘’Endless Trench’ Lead Goya Nominations
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” will go head-to-head with two other big Spanish films – Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and “The Endless Trench,” from Aitor Aguirre, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga – at Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards, to be held Jan. 25 in Malaga.

“Pain and Glory” garnered 16 nominations,” “While at War” 17 and “The Endless Trench” 15.

Though most pundits would put “Pain and Glory” as the frontrunner, the outcome is difficult to predict. World-premiering in Spain before competing in Cannes, where Antonio Banderas won the best actor prize, “Pain and Glory” was reckoned by Spanish critics to be Almodóvar’s best film in a decade.

But ever since the screenplay for Luis Buñuel’s “Viridiana,” which went on to win the Palme d’Or, was written off in Spain as nonsense, the Spanish industry has steadfastly refused to kowtow to internationally acclaimed directors or indeed talent.

Screening at Ventana Sur,...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 12/2/2019
  • by Jamie Lang and John Hopewell
  • Variety Film + TV
Sitges Review: ‘The Platform’ is Twisted, Ingenious Spanish Horror
There are three types of people, according to the opening lines of The Platform: those at the top, those at the bottom, and those who fall between them. That class-structure conceit forms the backbone of this ingenious Spanish horror that won the Midnight Madness sidebar at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, a twisted fantasy that aims high with socio-political ideas but never lets that get in the way of the gruesome nastiness of its Saw-like thrills.

Save for a handful of flashback scenes, we never escape the near-future superstructure of “el hoyo”–”the pit” in Spanish–a gargantuan underground holding center, in which each floor holds two randomly assigned people. The “platform” of the English translation is an immense platter of food, lowered into the pit that stops for a few minutes level by level, so that residents munch on as much as they can to survive the day.
See full article at The Film Stage
  • 10/14/2019
  • by Ed Frankl
  • The Film Stage
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s Debut ‘The Platform’ Tops Sitges Awards
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Barcelona — Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s debut feature “The Platform” was awarded best film, and best F/X at the 52nd Sitges’ Intl. Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. Gaztelu-Urrutia also snagged the Citizen Kane Award for an up-and-coming director and the Audience Award for best picture. The prizes come off the back of the Grolsch People’s Choice Award at Toronto’s Midnight Madness.

Produced by Carlos Juárez at Bilbao-based outfit Basque Films in co-production with Barcelona’s Mr. Miyagi, Gaztelu-Urrutia’s debut offers a harsh survival parable of power human relationships in a dystopic multi-floor dungeon prison. Its oft-starving dwellers handle the situation with existential and cannibalistic inclinations. The nightmarish script was co-written by successful Catalan playwright David Desola (“Warehoused”) and Pedro Rivero, co-director of Gkids U.S. pick-up “Bird Boy.”

Bilbao-born Gaztelu-Urrutia is an experienced producer at Basque Films and has directed commercials as well as two shorts. One,...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 10/12/2019
  • by Emilio Mayorga
  • Variety Film + TV
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Toronto Film Review: ‘The Platform’
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Nameless cooks hustle in the opening montage of Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s brutalist nightmare “The Platform.” Their kitchen is a blend of the delicate and the savage. A violinist plays as blades rip through fish, and the head chef caresses a dangling ham. When finished, they’ve assembled a still-life masterpiece of lobster, papaya and cake on a concrete slab. The feast could feed hundreds, but it never does. As it descends, level by level, down a residential tower, each pair of cellmates have minutes to gobble as much as they can before the food moves on to the next floor. With no distractions except for that day’s meal, the citadel is a test of survival and humanity. Says an intake officer (Antonia San Juan), “We prefer to call it a vertical self-management center.”

He and writers David Desola and Pedro Rivera are curious about how the poor devour each other.
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 9/10/2019
  • by Amy Nicholson
  • Variety Film + TV
Netflix Acquires Tiff Midnight Sci-Fi Thriller ‘The Platform’
Netflix has acquired worldwide rights, minus select Asian territories, to the Spanish-language sci-fi thriller “The Platform (El Hoyo),” which premiered in the coveted Friday night slot of the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff).

The film centers on a citizen of a not-too-distant dystopia who voluntarily incarcerates himself with the promise of increased social mobility upon release, but becomes so radicalized by his captivity that he will risk everything to ride a devilish dumbwaiter on a one-way ticket to protect a panna cotta.

Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia from a screenplay by David Desola and Pedro Rivera, the hot festival buzz title starsIván Massagué (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) and Antonia San Juan (“All About My Mother”), along with Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale and Alexandra Masangkay.

Also Read: A Majestic 'Joker' Drags the Oscar Race Into the Darkness in Toronto Premiere

“The Platform” was produced by Carlos Juárez and co-producers David Matamoros and M.
See full article at The Wrap
  • 9/10/2019
  • by Umberto Gonzalez
  • The Wrap
Netflix Scores Deal For Midnight Madness Sci-Fi Thriller ‘The Platform’ – Toronto
Netflix has acquired worldwide rights outside of some Asian territories to The Platform (El Hoyo), Galder Gaztelu-Irrutia’s Spanish-language sci-fi thriller that had its world premiere Friday in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival.

Ivan Massague (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Antonia San Juan (All About My Mother) star along with Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale and Alexandra Masangkay in the script by David Desola and Pedro Rivera. The plot: A citizen of a not-too-distant dystopia voluntarily incarcerates himself with the promise of increased social mobility upon release, but becomes so radicalized by his captivity that he will risk everything to ride a devilish dumbwaiter on a one-way ticket to protect a panna cotta.

Carlos Juárez is producer alongside co-producers David Matamoros and M. a. Angeles Hernández in association with Basque Films, Mr. Miyagi Films, and Plataforma la película Aie. Raquel Perea and Juárez are executive producers.

The deal...
See full article at Deadline Film + TV
  • 9/10/2019
  • by Patrick Hipes
  • Deadline Film + TV
Netflix takes world on Tiff Midnight Madness hit 'The Platform'
Festival hit premiered last Friday.

Netflix has acquired worldwide rights excluding select Asian territories to the Spanish Tiff Midnight Madness sci-fi hit The Platform.

The streamer swooped in a deal with Xyz Films, CAA Media Finance and Latido Films. The film had generated strong heat since its world premiere last Friday (6). It screens again in Tiff on Sunday September 15.

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia makes his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by David Desola and Pedro Rivero. Ivan Massague (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Antonia San Juan (All About My Mother) star in the story about a man who volunteers to be incarcerated...
See full article at ScreenDaily
  • 9/10/2019
  • by Jeremy Kay
  • ScreenDaily
Toronto: Netflix Nabs Dystopian Thriller 'The Platform'
Netflix has acquired world rights, except for select Asian territories, to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's Spanish-language sci-fi thriller The Platform (El Hoyo), which had a world premiere in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Gaztelu-Irrutia from a screenplay by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, the drama stars Ivan Massague, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale and Alexandra Masangkay. The thriller portrays a citizen of a not-too-distant dystopia who voluntarily incarcerates himself with the promise of increased social mobility upon release, but becomes so radicalized by his captivity that he will risk everything to ride ...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
  • 9/10/2019
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto: Netflix Nabs Dystopian Thriller 'The Platform'
Netflix has acquired world rights, except for select Asian territories, to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's Spanish-language sci-fi thriller The Platform (El Hoyo), which had a world premiere in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Gaztelu-Irrutia from a screenplay by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, the drama stars Ivan Massague, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale and Alexandra Masangkay. The thriller portrays a citizen of a not-too-distant dystopia who voluntarily incarcerates himself with the promise of increased social mobility upon release, but becomes so radicalized by his captivity that he will risk everything to ride ...
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
  • 9/10/2019
  • The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
CAA, Xyz, Take U.S. Representation Rights on ‘The Platform’ (Exclusive)
CAA Media Finance and production-sales company Xyz Films are set to co-represent, with Madrid-based Latido Films, the U.S. distribution rights to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform,” a Toronto Midnight Madness entry.

CAA Media Finance and production-sales company Xyz Films are set to co-represent, with Madrid-based Latido Films, the U.S. distribution rights to Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” (“El Hoyo”), a Toronto Midnight Madness entry.

Xyz has also signed Gaztelu-Urrutia to its new management division. The representation deal was struck by Xyz, CAA and Juan Torres at Latido Films, which represents world sales to the title outside Spain.

One of the standout Spanish-language feature debuts of 2019, if first reactions at Toronto are anything to go, “The Platform” has also chalked up a bevy of pre-sales in Asia for Latido, closing Japan (The Klockworx), Korea (Activers), Hong Kong-(Edko Films) and Taiwan (Creative Century).

“We’re delighted that such a...
See full article at Variety Film + TV
  • 9/7/2019
  • by John Hopewell
  • Variety Film + TV
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