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Exclusive: Goodfellas is expanding its footprint into Spain in a new production venture with prolific local producer Enrique López Lavigne aimed at producing ambitious projects with Spanish talent with international appeal.

Bannered Goodapatxe – in a nod to Lavigne’s Apache Films company, which he runs alongside El Studio – the venture aims to get two to three productions off the ground a year.

Details of the first projects are under wraps, but the partners have revealed they are in development on a Spanish historic film noir, a western and science fiction picture and four additional genre feature films directed by young Spanish authors.

Lavigne has been a driving force in the Spanish independent cinema scene for more than 30 years.

He started out as a film buyer for Canal Plus, before moving into distribution at Sogecine. He branched into producing in the late 1990s, taking credits on a host of early films...

“Veneno” writer-director-creators Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – popularly known as Los Javis – have dropped an international trailer for its sequel, “Vestida de Azul” (“Veneno 2: Dressed in Blue”) sharing it in exclusivity with Variety.

Sold to HBO Max for the U.S., where it aired to acclaim, “Veneno” was picked as one of Variety’s best international series in 2020.

This time round, Los Javis produce through Suma Content, the Madrid-based label they launched in 2021, where they also serve as its creative directors. The series is its fourth production after “Una navidad con Samantha Hudson,” a Christmas special, “Cardo,” and “Cardo 2.” An Atresplayer original series, “Vestidas de Azul” is produced for Atresmedia Television in collaboration with Suma Content. Atresmedia TV International Sales handles international distribution.

The trailer begins two years after “Veneno” with Valeria, her figure inspired by the real-life Spanish journalist Valeria Vegas who penned La Veneno’s memoirs, returning...

Spanish SVOD service Atresplayer Premium has announced at the Berlinale Series Market a raft of new cast members joining the continuation of its award-winning trans series “Veneno,” which played on HBO Max in the U.S. to large acclaim.

Joining the cast of the seven-episode series “Vestidas De Azul” are supporting cast members Susana Abaitua (“Crazy about Her”), Elena Irureta (“Patria”), Luis Callejo (“Jefe”), drag artist Estrella Xtravaganza, Mercedes Sampietro and Anabel Alonso (“7 Vidas”), among others.

The announcement was made at a Q&a on Monday focused on the continuation of the series. It forms part of a Next from Spain event focusing on first looks at four new series.

Currently shooting, Atresmedia,Atresolayer Premium parent, says it plans to begin streaming the new series in the fourth quarter of the year.

The original series was based on the life of Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez (La Veneno), a famous trans personality and singer from Spain.

Isabel Torres, the Spanish actor known for portraying the transgender icon Cristina “La Veneno” Ortiz on HBO’s “Veneno,” died Friday, according to a post originally written in Spanish on her official Instagram. She was 52.

“Although her family and friends feel her loss deeply, we know that wherever she goes, she will have fun as only she knows how,” the post reads in English. “Thank you for all the messages of affection and concern. She has left feeling very loved and supported.”

Torres rose to fame in 2020 as the oldest of three actors in the title role on the Spanish TV show “Veneno,” which was also released on HBO Max. Shortly after the show premiered, Torres announced on her Instagram that she was battling lung cancer, according to Spanish media reports.

The actor was born on July 14, 1969 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. She made history in 1996 as the...

Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo didn’t meet Cristina Ortiz Rodríguez, also known as “La Veneno,” in her best light. They often saw the prolific trans performer and bombastic media personality — by then in poor health — quietly eating a sandwich and sitting on a curb with her friends from her sex worker days. Nary a fan begging for an autograph was in sight.

Still, the actors-writers-producers-directors knew her story wasn’t only deserving to be heard around the world, but also one that would undoubtedly shine as brightly and stun as loudly as the firecracker did in her heyday. With this in mind, they created “Veneno,” which was produced by Atresmedia and Suma Latina, and generated a wave of buzz in the U.S. after its November release on HBO Max. The legendary RuPaul praised the show on social media, Variety included the biographical series on its 15 Best International Series of 2020 list,...

Directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo were meeting with television executives in their native Spain when they were asked to name someone they’d love to make a biographical series about.

“They probably expected us to say someone like Julio Iglesias, but one of us said, ‘La Veneno,’” Calvo tells Variety during a Zoom interview from the couple’s home in Madrid. “It was like a revelation. One man was looking down at his papers and looked up and was like, ‘What did you say? Who?’ And I was just like, ‘She was a transgender woman. She was famous, but she was a prostitute. And then she went to jail.’ We started to develop this TV show in our heads.”

Cristina “La Veneno” Ortiz was a pop culture superstar in Spain in the 1990s. She was discovered working the streets and became a sensation after her appearance on the late-night...

Cristina Ortiz, Aka La Veneno, was a Spanish singer, actress, sex worker, media personality, and one of the first transgender women to become widely known in Spain. She rose to fame in the 1990s before vanishing from public life and then returning to TV for appearances. By this time, the internet had become a more common […]

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