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Stars: Karen Black, Kevin Lloyd, Christine Burke, Robyn Hussa, Roger Galloway, Toni Covington, Joseph Campanella, David Burnell Smith, Jim Flynn | Written by Philip Yordan | Directed by John Carr

Jack is a young wanderer with a turbulent past who arrives at La Paloma, the cinema of his Aunt Ruth, the closest relative he has since the death of his mother, in the hope of a bed for a few nights. But in the city there is a serial killer who dances tango with his victims before strangling them and police start to suspect that Jack is in some way involved with the murders. His aunt and Julie, a girl who got a job in the cinema thanks to him, also begin to doubt his innocence…

Do you know what I like about the current state of physical media? All the boutique labels that have emerged, all fighting for the attention of...

Arguably, no other established Spanish film and TV industry has grown faster over the last decade than its service sector for international shoots. Some of the world’s most favorable tax incentives have helped propel business to historic heights.

Kicking off in 2015, tax regs rose muscularly during mid-pandemic in 2020. But in December, the Spanish government took it up another notch, establishing tax advantages for international productions of up to €20 million ($22.2 million) per movie and $11.1 million for a TV series episode. That increase went into effect Jan. 1.

With a special tax regime, the Canary Islands’ ceiling is $40.0 million for a film and a $20 mil- lion per series episode, some of the highest in Europe.

Discounts for foreign productions on mainland Spain are set at 30% for the first $1.11 million of deductible expenses and 25% for the rest. The Canaries offer a succulent 50%-45%. From Jan. 1, deduction rates in Basque Country’s Bizkaia reach...

Historical films are difficult to do well. They require endless research to prevent them from becoming inaccurate, huge budgets to cater to the elaborate sets, costumes, and props required, and must often strike a balance between staying true to history and entertaining a modern audience. It’s certainly no easy feat. Despite the difficulties, there are many medieval films that have been incredibly successful, both commercially and critically. From A Knight’s Tale to Henry V to The Name of the Rose, the best medieval movies are must-watches for any film fan.

The medieval period is fertile grounds for epic tales of glory on the battlefield and romanticized reimaginings of historical events, but it seems to have fallen out of favor somewhat in recent years. High fantasy stories set in fictional worlds seem to be much more prevalent, but, as great as Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones may be,...

Spain’s Grupo iZen and Argentina-based Non Stop have launched Cacao & Cia, a new shingle aimed at producing content for the global Spanish-speaking market.

With offices in Madrid and Mexico, the joint venture will be headed by Non Stop’s Pedro Dávila, who will lead a creative team in close collaboration with Juliana Barrera from iZen in Madrid.

Among its first projects are biopics of celebrated Argentine Formula 1 race car driver Juan Manuel Fangio and legendary Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. The latter is based on the book “Las verdades de Chavela” by Maria Cortina, which is being adapted by Arantxa Echevarría.

These projects define Cacao & Cia’s upcoming line of content reflecting strong IPs with protagonists closely linked to Latin America and with robust international appeal. This partnership between two strong players is crucial in a highly competitive marketplace where content demand is high, but more players have also jumped into the fray.

Exclusive: Alicia Sanz (El Cid) and Raúl Castillo (The Inspection) will topline Open House — a recently-wrapped psychological horror-thriller written and directed by the duo of David Charbonier and Justin Powell (The Djinn).

The film from Kinogo Pictures and Mad Descent, which shot in Los Angeles, follows a realtor who must survive a night of terror when a deranged client shows up at her open house. Ryan Scaringe (Eradication) produced along with Charbonier and Powell, with Amy Lippens and Jilbert Daniel being joined as EPs by Sanz and Castillo. UTA Independent Film Group is repping worldwide sales.

Charbonier and Powell made their feature directorial debut with 2020’s The Boy Behind the Door — a critically acclaimed horror-thriller starring This Is Us‘ Lonnie Chavis that was released by Shudder after premiering at Fantastic Fest. The pair subsequently wrote, directed and exec produced The Djinn, a supernatural horror released by IFC Midnight in 2021.

Perhaps...

Apple TV+ released the trailer for the upcoming bilingual series “Now & Then” on Tuesday: The eight-episode thriller from Bambú Producciones is about a group of college friends who are being blackmailed over a death from 20 years before. It’s set to launch globally with three episodes on Friday, May 20, on Apple TV+, with new episodes weekly every Friday through June 24.

Set in Miami and shot in both Spanish and English, the series stars Rosie Perez as a cop eager to have a second chance to solve the mysterious death. The series also stars Marina de Tavira (“Roma”), José María Yazpik (“Narcos: Mexico”), Maribel Verdú (“Y tu mamá también”), Manolo Cardona (“Narcos”), Soledad Villamil (“The Secret in Their Eyes”), Jorge López (Netflix’s “Elite”), Alicia Jaziz (HBO’s “Love Spells”), Dario Yazbek Bernal (“The House of Flowers”), Alicia Sanz (Prime Video’s “El Cid”), Jack Duarte (“Ingobernable,”) and Miranda de la Serna...

Airing on Prime Video from Feb. 25, “Operation Black Tide” puts faces and character backstories to one of the most epic of feats in the annals of narco-trafficking.

The four-part Spanish-Portuguese drama-thriller also says much about the ambitions of the U.S. streamer: Its energetic targeting of local markets, and pursuit of tried and tested talent to explore new genres with notable production ambitions. Following, four key pointers to the latest Amazon series from Spain:

Capturing an Epic Narco Feat

Drug sub actioner “Operation Black Tide” is certainly one example. It hews closely to a dramatic real-life event: the detection on Nov. 24, 2019, off the fjord-indented coast of Galicia, North-West Spain, of a flimsy 70-foot fiberglass semi-submersible, fabricated in a clandestine shipyard deep in the Amazon rainforest.

On board were three tons of cocaine, worth an estimated street value of €123 million ($138 million), and three crew members who had piloted the drug sub...

Exclusive: Upload and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City actor Robbie Amell and El Cid star Alicia Sanz have joined Sam Worthington and Jordana Brewster in the thriller Hello Stranger, which began filming in Canada this week.

Myriad Pictures is handling international sales and will be shopping the project at the virtual European Film Market beginning next week. CAA Media Finance and Verve Ventures are handling U.S. sales. Mongrel will distribute in Canada.

In Hello Stranger, Faye (Brewster) attempts to replace her newly deceased husband, Evan, with an android simulant (Sim). Although Sim Evan appears like human Evan in every way, Faye does not feel the same love for Sim Evan as it does for her. Sim Evan tries to win Faye back while at the same time being on-the-run from a government agent (Worthington) chasing down SIMs who have become “conscious” and could potentially be a threat to humankind.

In a bid to tap into the intense demand for premium Spanish-language content, veteran Spanish entertainment executive Pepe Huertas has launched TV production company, Tres Vacas. He’s joined by seasoned showrunners Pilar Nadal and Felipe Mellizo, creators of such top selling dramatic series as “Águila Roja” (“Red Eagle”) and “Un Paso Adelante” (“One Step Forward”).

The company will focus on creating scripted content for the global audience, drawing on their combined talents, expertise and decades of experience.

“Our aim is to conceive relatable stories capable of engaging with the audience from the first minute, based on in-depth character development that allows us to construct long and strong narrative arcs,” said Huertas, founding partner and managing director of Tres Vacas.

Given the global success of Netflix’s Spanish-language projects, led by “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”) and “Elite,” the Spanish-language market is no longer considered niche and has proven...

Marking a new phase of expansion, Barcelona-based Scenic Rights, the biggest literary rights broker for Spanish-language film and TV series, is set to enter Central and Eastern Europe opening offices in Prague in January 2022.

Further new international offices will be announced shortly, Scenic Rights has announced.

Scenic Rights Cee marks a collaboration with the creative heads of Dramedy Productions, an independent Prague-based film-tv production house that created retro family drama “Wonderful Times” (“Vyprávěj”), a Golden Nymph winner at the Monte Carlo TV Festival. Dramedy also co-produced Italian crime drama “Maltese” with Palomar and Zdf Enterprises, which was written by “Gomorrah” scribes Leonardo Fasoli and Maddalena Ravagli.

Dramedy will manage operations in Central and Eastern Europe, led by its CEO, seasoned showrunner-producer Filip Bobiňski. Martin Porges and Teresa Lacinová, Dramedy International head of production, will also join the team.

Scenic Rights’ Cee branch reflects a broader market perception that Central and...

Any WW2 action adventure involving the Norwegian resistance is Ok in my book, and this big-star saga about sabotage efforts to stop the Nazis’ atom research is a natural — much of what happens in the story is true. The show can boast marvelous locations and excellent action scenes but the script and characters aren’t very strong. Did Columbia curb epic director Anthony Mann’s greater ambitions, or did star Kirk Douglas interfere to enhance his leading character into a combo scientist, playboy and sure-shot action man? Also starring Ulla Jacobsson, Richard Harris, Michael Redgrave, and every over-fifty English name actor not nailed down.

The Heroes of Telemark

Blu-ray

Sony Home Entertainment

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date January 8, 2019

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Redgrave, David Weston, Roy Dotrice, Anton Diffring, Ralph Michael, Eric Porter, Karel Stepanek, George Murcell, Mervyn Johns, Barry Jones, Geoffrey Keen, Robert Ayres,...

From the late 1940s — and taking in “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “El Cid,” “A Fistful of Dollars” and “Doctor Zhivago” — Spain has welcomed some of the biggest movies and series in history.

As it battles to become one of Europe’s foremost production hubs, its service sector has grown with the Mediapro Studio and Secuoya Studios recently launching international shoot service divisions. Following, profiles of five of Spain’s top service players.

Babieka

For over 50 years, Babieka has helped handle big budget international shoots in Spain. Ridley Scott’s “Exodus,” Terry George’s “The Promise” and Reed Morano’s “The Rhythm Section” figure amongst its recent titles. Babieka also produces (Netflix film “The Paramedic”) and co-produces. “Top international productions are in our DNA. These prove an amazing training ground for our cast and crew that we benefit from in our own productions,” says CEO Denis Pedregosa.

It’s blockbuster season and Amazon Prime is celebrating by bringing a major action film to its stream.

That’s right, Amazon Prime’s list of new releases for July 2021 is highlighted by none other than The Tomorrow War on July 2. The year is 2051 and mankind is locked in a vicious war against an alien species. Our only hope is to go back in time and find…Chris Pratt. Ok, perhaps that’s a little reductive of the film’s plot. Future humanity also comes back to bring Sam Richardson to the future.

In terms of originals, there isn’t much else to speak of on Amazon Prime this month. The only other major release is The Pursuit of Love on July 30. This BBC series is directed by Emily Mortimer and takes place during the WWII era and follows two cousins as they navigate their lives. Lily James and Andrew Scott star.

Exclusive: Spanish actress Alicia Sanz has signed with Range Media Partners for talent management.

The star of the Amazon Prime series El Cid will continue to be repped by CAA, You Rock Talent; and Brecheen, Feldman, Breimer, Silver & Thompson.

Sanz is renowned for her turn as Paloma Iglesias in the second season of El Rey’s From Dusk Till Dawn from Robert Rodriguez.

Sanz is currently shooting Gideon Raff’s bilingual thriller series Now and Then for Apple TV+ opposite Rosie Perez, Maribel Verdú, and Marina de Tavira. Set in Miami with an all-Hispanic cast, the series explores the differences between youthful aspirations and the reality of adulthood, when the lives of a group of college best friends are forever changed after a celebratory weekend ends up with one of them dead. Now, 20 years later, the remaining five are reluctantly reunited by a threat that puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk.

ITV Studios Sets Up Shop In Spain With Netflix Exec

Cattleya, the ITV Studios-backed Italian producer behind Gomorrah, is launching Spanish subsidiary Cattleya Producciones and has hired Netflix’s Arturo Díaz as managing director. The company will be ITV Studios’ first scripted producer in Spain. Díaz was a director of local language originals at Netflix, working on shows including Las Chicas de Cable, the streamer’s longest-running non-u.S. series. Cattleya Producciones will be overseen by Cattleya founder and co-ceo Riccardo Tozzi, alongside his co-CEOs Giovanni Stabilini and Marco Chimenz. Lisa Perrin, managing director of international production at ITV Studios, will also have oversight of the outfit. ITV Studios will distribute its drama series internationally.

Sky Sets Cast For ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’

Keeley Hawes (Bodyguard), and Max Beesley (The Outsider) are to lead the cast of Sky’s modern-day adaptation of John Wyndham’s sci-fi novel The Midwich Cuckoos. The...

Streaming heavyweights have big global aspirations, and they’re relying on a growing cadre of women to realize them.

Female leaders abound at Netflix and Amazon Studios, where international programming initiatives are well underway, and they occupy top roles at Disney, Viacom and HBO Max as the businesses expand globally. In a sign of how important these initiatives are to Netflix, the streamer elevated Bela Bajaria, formerly head of local-language programming, to head of global TV in September as part of a broader corporate realignment. Earlier, in June, it lured Eleonora “Tinny” Andreatta, who shepherded HBO’s cross-national hit “My Brilliant Friend” as head of Rai drama, to oversee Italian originals. At Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, a proponent of global franchises, is relying on an all-female regional leadership team to grow the company’s international fortunes. Over at Disney, Rebecca Campbell gained oversight of global streaming when Kevin Mayer exited in May,...

Content group iZen has optioned Eduardo Mendoza’s acclaimed Spanish historical novel “City of Marvels” (La Ciudad de los Prodigios) and is developing it as a six-part series. No broadcaster or streaming platform has yet been attached to the project.

iZen’s Zebra Producciones was behind epic Amazon Prime Video historical series “El Cid,” with “Money Heist” star Jaime Lorente, which will return for a second season this year.

Published in 1986 and translated into 14 languages, “City of Marvels” chronicles the protagonist Onofre Bouvila’s journey from small-time hustler to one of the richest people in Spain. The multi-generational story is set against the backdrop of Barcelona’s social and cultural evolution at the turn of the 20th century, as the city shook off its medieval past and reinvented itself as a vibrant modern metropolis.

The deal was brokered by NewCo Audiovisual, the Barcelona-based iZen company formed in 2018 to produce scripted series and international co-productions.

In today’s Global Bulletin, BBC and SundanceTV announce the third and final season of “The Split,” Sky and XYZ Films prepare to shoot “Book of Love” and Vis Distribution adds 750 hours of content following its acquisition of Israel’s Ananey Studios.

Television

BBC One and SundanceTV have ordered a third and final season of Sister’s “The Split,” created by BAFTA and International Emmy-winning writer Abi Morgan and produced by Jane Featherstone (“Chernobyl”), Lucy Dyke (“Black Mirror”) and Lucy Richer (“Small Axe”), with Dee Koppang O’Leary boarding as lead director.

Unspooling in London’s high-end divorce circuit, “The Split” follows the lives of the Defoe sisters, Hannah, Nina and Rose, and their imposing mother Ruth. Season two ended with divorce lawyer Hannah’s own marriage in tatters and the couple negotiating the terms of their own split. As the dust seems to be settling, a new revelation comes to light,...

Sophia Loren is generating red-hot Oscar buzz for her performance in Netflix’s Italian-language drama “The Life Ahead.” The screen legend has earned some of the best reviews of her seven-decade career for her heartbreaking performance as a former prostitute and Holocaust survivor who takes care of children of streetwalkers.

Loren made Oscar history 59 years ago when she became the first performer to receive an Academy Award for a foreign-language film. She took home Best Actress for Vittorio DeSica’s harrowing World War II drama “Two Women,” which was also in Italian. Loren, who also starred with Charlton Heston that year in the lavish epic “El Cid,” had very strong competition when the Oscar nominations were announced in the winter of 1962.

Natalie Wood, who had received a Supporting Actress nomination as a teenager for 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause,” gave an extraordinary performance as a sensitive teenager living in Kansas...

Starring “Money Heist” and “Elite” star Jaime Llorente, Amazon’s “El Cid” hit the streaming platform worldwide on Dec. 18, weighing in as Spain’s first scripted Amazon Original and one of its biggest swings to date in continental Europe.

While Charlton Heston’s El Cid in the eponymous 1961 film was a product of the Cold War, an agent of Christendom battling invading aliens, Llorente’s Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, alias El Cid, is less glorious, more grounded and far truer to its age while interpreting events with modern-day political and gender sensibility. This is a medieval epic, but with attitude, and Spain setting the record straight.

Here are six takes on the five-part season 1, and a brief Q&a with co-creator José Velasco and producer Sara Fernandez-Velasco. (Warning: may contain spoilers)

The Dawn of Democracy

Driving to the heart of its drama, in an early episode one flash-forward, Llorente’s 20-year-old El Cid,...