News

Netflix’s $1B Mexican drive is taking shape with cameras rolling on four new series starring the likes of Gael García Bernal and Paulina Dávila. Meanwhile, another new show out of Mexico, Mal de Amores (Lovesick), the adaptation of Ángeles Mastretta’s novel, has wrapped.

Netflix boss Ted Sarandos said in Feb. that the streamer will splash $1B on Mexican originals over the next four years. The quartet of new series includes Santita starring Garcia Bernal and Dávila. It is billed as an unconventional love story about a woman forced to confront her life choices. From Panorama Entertainment, Rodrigo García directs.

Love 9 To 5 is an office rom-com from Carolina Rivera, creator of Daughter from Another Mother. Produced by La Granja, it stars Diego Klein and Ana González Bello as workplace rivals. He is an entitled nepo baby and she is a star employee. They initially despise each other, but, per the rom-com rules,...

Netflix has unveiled the start of production on four new series in Mexico, including one starring Gael García Bernal, reflecting the global streaming giant’s commitment “to continue bringing Mexican stories created by local creators to the screen.”

Following February’s news of a $1 billion investment in local production by Netflix, directors and showrunners presented the new shows in the streamer’s Mexican office. They are Santita, Love 9 to 5 (Amor de oficina), I’m Not Afraid (No tengo miedo), and Corruptors (Los corruptores).

Netflix also confirmed the end of production of Lovesick (Mal de amores), an adaptation of the novel written by Ángeles Mastretta and directed by her daughter, Catalina Aguilar Mastretta.

The new series add to Mexican series that Netflix previously announced it would release this year, namely Snakes and Ladders, The Dead Girls, How to Win the Lottery, The Gringo Hunters, Unspeakable Sins, and No One Saw Us Leave.

Netflix has unveiled four new series currently filming in Mexico as part of the streamer’s $1 billion investment in film and TV production in the country.

Production is officially underway on “Santita,” which hails from director Rodrigo García and stars Gael García Bernal, Carolina Rivera’s “Amor de oficina,” “I’m not afraid” (“No tengo miedo”), which is based on Niccolò Ammaniti’s Italian novel, and “Corruptors” (“Los corruptores”) based on the novel of the same name by Jorge Zepeda Patterson, Netflix announced Tuesday.

Additionally, the streamer wrapped filming on “Lovesick” (“Mal de amores”), the adaptation of Ángeles Mastretta’s novel, which is directed by her daughter, Catalina Aguilar Mastretta.

“Santita” will star Paulina Dávila and Gael García, while “Amor de oficina,” the new comedy by Carolina Rivera, stars Diego Klein and Ana González Bello.

Likewise, “I’m not Afraid,” which will be directed by Ernesto Contreras, will star Luis Alberti,...

Netflix is expanding its commitment to Mexican storytelling with the announcement of four brand-new series currently in production. As part of its ongoing $1 billion investment in the country’s creative industry, Netflix continues to deepen its collaboration with local talent and creators, highlighting the authenticity and diversity of Mexican stories.

Among the new titles announced are “Santita,” “Love 9 to 5,” “I’m Not Afraid” and “Corruptors,” all reflecting Netflix’s pledge to showcase Mexican narratives and culture.

“Santita,” directed by Rodrigo García, tells the story of María José Cano, a woman who, after a car accident confines her to a wheelchair, abandons the love of her life at the altar. Now, two decades later, she must face the consequences of her past when he unexpectedly reenters her life. Dubbed “Santita” despite being more sinner than saint, María José’s journey is a wickedly irreverent and unconventional love story. Paulina Dávila and...

Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has been plying his creative trade in Hollywood for over two decades. His notably instrumental camerawork can be seen in most of Martin Scorsese’s latest works and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” For his directorial debut, Prieto, however, follows in the footsteps of his earlier collaborator, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. “Pedro Paramo” (2024) is a landmark novel in Latin American literature. One that influenced Gabriel Garcia Marquez to create another, relatively popular, landmark literary work, “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The novel is one of the early proponents of the artistic phenomenon known as “Magic Realism.”

In “Pedro Paramo,” Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) travels to the abandoned ruins of what once was a bustling town called Comala. Juan was conceived in this place, as this is the place where his father, the eponymous Pedro Paramo (Manuel Garcia Rulfo), lived and ruled. Pedro abandoned Juan’s mother, Dolores (Ishbel Bautista). On her deathbed,...

"From now on, we make the laws." Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for the film Pedro Páramo, the first feature directed by the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. This film just premiered at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and will be out on Netflix to watch starting in November. The story follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo – lover, overlord, murderer. Pedro Páramo not only pays tribute to Mexico's most important literary work, it is also a tribute to love, one as powerful as it is macabre, capable of bringing the entire town of Comala and all its inhabitants down with it... Based on Juan Rulfo's masterpiece. Featuring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Pedro Paramo, Tenoch Huerta, Dolores Heredia, Ilse Salas, Héctor Kotsifakis,...

La película, protagonizada por Manuel García Rulfo y Tenoch Huerta, llega en noviembre. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el tráiler de la película Pedro Páramo, la adaptación cinematográfica de la obra cumbre de Juan Rulfo, que se estrenó mundialmente en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto (TIFF).

Pedro Páramo narra el viaje cargado de ilusiones de Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) buscando la riqueza de un padre a quien no conoce. Pero al llegar a Comala, el lugar donde le dijeron que vivía, solo encuentra los atroces recuerdos de un pueblo sometido durante décadas por ese hombre, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo), condenado por su violenta cruzada en pos del poder y por la furia que despertó en él su frustrado amor por Susana San Juan (Ilse Salas). Tanto así que Juan comienza a preguntarse si sus habitantes podrían no estar vivos.

La película, que marca el debut directoral del reconocido cinefotógrafo mexicano Rodrigo Prieto,...

Prime Video has announced the lineup of movies and TV shows that will be available on the service in October. The Prime Video October 2024 lineup includes new Amazon original movies, TV shows, and specials. Below, you can also view the titles available on Amazon Freevee.

Members can look forward to Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?, Brothers, Citadel: Diana, Faceoff: Inside the NHL, The Devil’s Hour Season 2, House of Spoils, Killer Cakes, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, The Office (Australia), The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, and more.

And, to celebrate James Bond Day on October 5, all 25 James Bond movies are now streaming on Prime Video as well!

House of Spoils Prime Video Originals

The Prime Video October 2024 programming includes the following Originals.

House of Spoils (2024 – Streaming October 3)

From Blumhouse, House of Spoils follows an ambitious chef (Ariana DeBose) as she opens a restaurant on a...

La película, protagonizada por Manuel García Rulfo y Tenoch Huerta, tiene su estreno mundial en el Festival de Cine de Toronto. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el primer teaser tráiler de la película Pedro Páramo, la adaptación cinematográfica de la obra cumbre de Juan Rulfo, que se estrena mundialmente en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto (TIFF).

Pedro Páramo narra el viaje cargado de ilusiones de Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta) buscando la riqueza de un padre a quien no conoce. Pero al llegar a Comala, el lugar donde le dijeron que vivía, solo encuentra los atroces recuerdos de un pueblo sometido durante décadas por ese hombre, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo), condenado por su violenta cruzada en pos del poder y por la furia que despertó en él su frustrado amor por Susana San Juan (Ilse Salas). Tanto así que Juan comienza a preguntarse si sus habitantes podrían no estar vivos.

Events

After a successful launch at SXSW earlier this year, the South Asian House initiative, which aims to highlight, recognize and appreciate South Asians in film and television, is set to debut at the Tribeca Festival, New York, on June 16.

Brainchild of producers, curators and programmers Rohi Mirza Pandya (Box Office Guru Media and Desipina), Monika Samtani (Ms. Media and The Fem Word), Jitin Hingorani (Jingo Media and Dfw South Asian Film Festival) and Kirtana Banskota (Banskota Productions and Nepal America Film Society), the event will showcase programming focused on the funding, creation and distribution of South Asian stories for a global audience. The day will consist of two panel discussions focused on content creation in the diaspora and the Indian film industry and will be part of the AT&T Untold Stories Lounge at Spring Studios.

Hingorani and Mirza Pandya said: “Our filmmakers are making tremendous headway in Hollywood,...

SkyShowtime, the European streaming joint venture of Comcast and Paramount Global, on Sunday unveiled a slate of original and exclusive series that will be premiering on the service later this year and in 2024.

CEO Monty Sarhan announced during a keynote appearance at the Marché du Film in Cannes that overall a total of 10 SkyShowtime originals from different regions and countries would premiere on the service in 2023. Among them are shows from its three regions of the Nordics, Iberia and Central and Eastern Europe. The streamer, which serves a total of 22 markets, described that as “a staggering and nearly unheard of accomplishment for a service that is less than one year old.”

Among others, SkyShowtime will later this year debut Codename: Annika, its first original from the Nordics. The Finnish-Swedish production, which previously had the working title ID, was part of a deal the streamer struck early this year with Warner Bros. Discovery...

SkyShowtime CEO Monty Sarhan led a market keynote at Cannes this afternoon, during which he shared the streamer’s forthcoming slate, including a series of original European-produced shows set to hit the streamer this year and into 2024.

The announced productions span Europe. In the Nordics, the streamer will debut Codename: Annika, its first original in the region. The Finnish-Swedish production, previously titled ID, is a crime-drama series that revolves around Finnish art-fraud investigator Emma, who goes undercover to infiltrate an auction house in Stockholm in order to investigate the firm’s connection to a notorious money launderer known as Blanko. The series will be available to stream later this year.

The Spanish SkyShowtime series Las Invisibles (The Invisible Ladies) will premiere in Spain on 5 June. Starring Lolita Flores, Maria Pujalte, Yoshira Escárrega, Paula del Río, Paula Mirá, Yaël Belicha, and Elena Irureta, the series follows what is billed as a...

Manuel García-Rulfo has been cast in the title role of Netflix’s Spanish-language film Pedro Páramo. Shooting has begun on the Mexican film, which marks cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s directorial debut.

García-Rulfo is best known for Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer, which debuted last year. He is leading Pedro Páramo opposite Tenoch Huerta, who will play Juan Preciado in the Mateo Gil adaptation of the Juan Rulfo novel.

They are joined by Ilse Salas, Mayra Batalla, Héctor Kotsifakis, Roberto Sosa, Dolores Heredia, Giovanna Zacarías, Noé Hernández and Yoshira Escárrega among others.

Rulfo’s original novel follows a man who attempts to meet his father for the first time after his mother’s death, only to find a ghost town filled with spectral figures and discovers the reckless and dangerous choices his dad made during his life.

“Our commitment to Mexican cinema takes on a whole new dimension with the start of production of Pedro Páramo,...

At the 20th Morelia Film Festival to debut their first feature produced in Mexico, “Maquíllame Otra Vez,” brothers Pablo and Juan de Diós Larrain of Chile-based film-tv powerhouse Fabula have announced the official launch of their Mexican city production office with Carlos Taibo at the helm. Fabula has also named Eduardo Castro as their line producer, Enrique Ochoa as deputy finance manager and Daniela Amorós as human resources director.

“In all, we’ll have up to 18 staff members aside from additional hires on a per project basis,” said producer Juan de Dios who pointed out that Fabula was interested in “generating content that portrays Latin America’s idiosyncrasies and imagination as well as revealing our identity from our own points of view and challenges.”

Taibo, who starts his new position in December, was a unit production manager on such big titles as “Elysium,” “The Arrival,” “Man on Fire” and the highest grossing Spanish-language film worldwide,...

Exclusive: Lionsgate+ has renewed Señorita 89 for a second season and has added Dolores Heredia (El Galán) and Yoshira Escárrega (Toda La Sangre) as series regulars. Production will kick off on October 17 in Mexico City.

Heredia will portray La Madrina, mother of the cartels, who sees power and influence in Jocelyn (Leidi Gutiérrez), and Yoshira Escárrega as Maribel Montaño, who is known as La Santa because the night they found her with her victim’s eyes in her hands, they say the dead man could still see.

In the first season of Señorita 89, Isabel (Natasha Dupeyrón) was crowned; Dolores died (Bárbara López); Elena (Ximena Romo) went into exile and Concepción’s (Ilse Salas) La Encantada empire fell apart.

When Season 2 premieres, the ‘90s are in full swing and the two main TV networks in Mexico find themselves in a war to impose the next queen. While Miss Yucatan (Dupeyrón) tries to...

Exclusive: Pantaya has set September 15 as the premiere date for Toda La Sangre, the crime-thriller starring Aarón Díaz and Ana Brenda Contreras.

Based on the best-selling novel by Mexican author Bernardo Esquinca, Toda La Sangre follows Casasola (Díaz), a tabloid reporter who joins forces with police lieutenant Edith Mondragón (Contreras) and Elisa (Yoshira Escárrega), a local anthropologist, who aim to decipher a series of murders that have shocked the country. Together they travel through Mexico City chasing a ritual murderer whose peculiarity is to recreate ancient Aztec sacrifices.

Yoshira Escárrega, Antonio Trejo Sánchez, Clementina Guadarrama, Cinthia Vázquez, Odiseo Bichir, and Julio Casado also star.

Produced by Fremantle Mexico, the 10-episode series is developed and produced by showrunner and executive producer Zasha Robles from Spiral International, the creator of the Emmy-winning series Falco. The series is directed by Luis Prieto and Hari Sama; and written by Rodrigo Ordónez, Santiago Rocagliolo, Natalia Mejia,...

One man’s alien is another man’s celebrity crush.

Turns out, Javier Bardem wanted to phone home with E.T., the extraterrestrial from Steven Spielberg’s hit 1982 film.

“I remember the day, I saw the film three times in a row,” Bardem recalled to British Vogue, declaring his childhood crush was E.T. “I remember when I met Steven Spielberg. He’s such a wonderful man. What an artist.”

Bardem was slated to star in and produce Spielberg’s four-hour miniseries “Cortés y Moctezuma” for Amazon Prime Video. The long-awaited passion project came to an end after the streaming service pulled the plug in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Deadline.

Bardem was set to play conqueror Hernan Cortés, who led an expedition to the heart of King Montezuma II’s (Tenoch Huerta) Aztec empire.

The Amazon Studios/Amblin Partners project, described as the largest Spanish-language production of all time,...

In a fairly crowded field of contenders, “Drunken Birds” just grabbed the nod as Canada’s best international feature submission to the Oscars. The reasons why are almost immediately apparent on seeing Montreal-born Ivan Grbovic’s sophomore effort, co-written with cinematographer Sara Mishara. Though more modest in length and scale (not to mention star wattage),

Admittedly, that bold, confident surface sits on a framework of rather basic melodrama it can’t entirely disguise. But moment to moment, “Birds” is an impressive leap from the director’s debut, “Romeo Eleven,” a decade ago, signaling another French-Canadian talent perhaps ready to follow Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée onto a bigger career stage. Les Films Opale released the TIFF-premiered film to Canadian cinemas last month.

An initially baffling series of seemingly unrelated scenes — including a white tiger prowling a drug lord’s abandoned estate — gradually settle into the present-tense arrival of Willy (Jorge Antonio Guerrero...

Drunken Birds, the migrant drama from Serbian Canadian director Ivan Grbovic that had its world premiere in the Platform section at last month’s Toronto Film Festival, has been selected by Canada as the country’s entry into the 2022 International Feature Oscar race.

Written by Grbovic and Sara Mishara, the film (Les oiseaux ivres in French) centers on a quest for lost love that sends a man from Mexico to Canada, where he is hired as a seasonal worker. Fates intertwine, tensions grow, and moments of magical realism arise during the long workdays. Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Hélène Florent, Claude Legault, Marine Johnson, Maxime Dumontier, Amaryllis Tremblay, Karl Walcott, Yoshira Escárrega, Gilberto Barraza and Normand D’Amour star.

The film is produced by micro_scope and distributed by Les Films Opale. Wazabi Films is repping international sales. Drunken Birds was one of 10 films submitted to the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, Telefilm Canada said Monday.

Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Bird (Les Oiseaux Ivres) will represent Canada in the best international feature film category as its official Oscar submission.

Telefilm Canada executive director and CEO Christa Dickenson said on Monday (October 4) that 10 films had been submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee, adding: “Telefilm will support the film’s team on this exciting journey. This vote of confidence is a phenomenal springboard for these creators and a terrific opportunity for Canada to demonstrate the excellence of its film industry.”

‘Drunken Birds’: Toronto Review

Grbovic and Sara Mishara co-wrote the film produced by micro_scope. It premiered...

We start at the end—the end of a cartel. Men climb the walls to go inside the now abandoned estate, walking amongst paintings and sculptures before stripping naked to take a dip in the indoor swimming pool while a giant portrait of their unwitting (and now imprisoned) benefactor looks on. One decides to don a fur coat as he rifles through the papers sitting on the kingpin’s desk. He picks up a note and begins to read before discarding it out of boredom. The voice of its author, however, continues to speak. Talk of a shootout, love, and emancipation follow until the smooth swoop of a tarp covering an expensive car transports us back to the moment the letter was composed within. The present provides the past.

Writer/director Ivan Grbovic and co-writer/cinematographer Sara Mishara seamlessly take us back and forth through time so the romance at...

Initiating one of Amazon’s most ambitious titles ever in Latin America, production has begun on “La cabeza de Joaquín Murrieta,” the region’s first Western Amazon Original series, Amazon Prime Video announced Tuesday.

An “action-packed” series made in Mexico, it added, “La cabeza de Joaquín Murrieta” stars top Mexican actor Juan Manuel Bernal and Alejandro Speitzer, a fast-rising star after prominent roles in Mexican hits in “Dark Desire” and “Someone Has to Die.”

Backed by a powerful creative combo, the Amazon Original series is produced by Dynamo, who handled the physical production of “Narcos” in Colombia and produced Amazon’s “Falco” and Netflix’s first-anounced Colombian Original series, “Green Frontier.”

The series is created by Dynamo’s Diego Ramírez Schrempp and Fidelio’s Mauricio Leiva-Cock.

Series episodes will be directed by Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz and David Pablos, fresh of his success with “Dance of the 41,” and director of “The Chosen Ones,...

Exclusive: Amazon has scrapped plans to resume production and complete Cortés y Moctezuma, its epic four-hour miniseries starring and executive produced by Oscar winner Javier Bardem and executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.

The Amazon Studios/Amblin Partners project, described as the largest Spanish-language production of all time, was two weeks into filming in Mexico when it was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Written by Oscar winner Steve Zaillian, it also starred Tenoch Huerta and Yoshira Escárrega.

“Due to the production constraints created by the Covid-19 global pandemic, Amazon Studios and Amblin Partners are unable to move forward with production on our Cortés y Moctezuma series,” the two companies said in a statement to Deadline. “In the current climate, there is unfortunately no way to remount the production in the near future to achieve the scale and scope that was intended and that the series deserves.

Exclusive: Tenoch Huerta (Narcos: Mexico) and Yoshira Escárrega (Aquí en la Tierra) are set to star alongside Javier Bardem in the untitled Cortés and Moctezuma project from Amazon Studios and Amblin Television.

The limited series will be a four-hour epic drama that maps the inexorable march and eventual clash between Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, leading to the annihilation of an empire and tragic downfall of a civilization that took centuries to build, but less than two years to destroy.

Oscar winner Bardem was announced in the role of Hernán Cortés last year and will also serve as an executive producer on the project.

Huerta will play Moctezuma, the Emperor of the Aztecs. Escárrega will play Marina, strategic partner, translator and consort to Hernán Cortés.

From Amazon Studios and Amblin Television, the limited series is created for television and written by Academy Award-winner Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List...

The event launches in Cannes this April.

Canneseries, the international TV festival launching in Cannes this April (7-11), has revealed the ten series in its official competition selection.

Scroll down for full line-up

The titles include Killing Eve created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and starring Sandra Oh and Fiona Shaw, and Aquí En La Terra, created by Gael García Bernal with Kyzza Terrazas and Jorge Dorantes.

The titles were selected by Canneseries artistic director Albin Lewi.

The festival was founded by David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes and presided by former French culture minister Fleur Pellerin. It will run alongside Miptv.