Netflix has boarded a big screen adaptation of the 57-year-old Spanish film screenwriter and film director’s award-winning theatre play 53 Domingos, which he’ll direct.
The drama, exploring family relationships, follows three brothers who meet to discuss what to do with their octogenarian father, who has started showing strange behavior.
As they discuss whether to move him to a nursing home, or into one of their homes, the initially civilized family discussion degenerates into an unexpected and hilarious fight.
The cast includes Carmen Machi, Javier Cámara and Javier Gutierrez.
Gay’s previous credits include international breakout Truman, the choral film Stories Not To Be Toldand the television drama Félix.
The Netflix announcement rounds out a trio of Spanish feature productions unveiled by the streamer this week.
The previously announced titles span alongside political thriller Un Fantasma en la Batalla, produced by Society of Snow filmmaker J.A. Bayona, and investigative drama La Desconocida, written by journalist and author Rosa Montero.
The latter revolves around an investigation into the identity of woman found in a container located in the Barcelona docks, with no memory of who she is or how she got there.
Alberto Rodriguez’s latest film, one of Spain’s most recent blockbusters, is ready to conquer North America.
Todo Cine Latino, the specialty label of Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures, has teamed with Canada’s AZ Films to acquire the North America rights to La Isla Minima.
The 44-year-old Spanish filmmaker’s fifth feature, titled Marshland in English is described as a noirish period cop thriller.
The film won 10 Spanish Film AcademyGoya Awards, among them best picture, director and actor (for star Javier Gutierrez).
Produced by Atresmedia Cine, Sacromonte Films and Atipica Films, and a competition frontrunner at San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it world premiered on September 20, winning the jury prize and best actor (Gutierrez), Marshland went on to gross $8.4 million in Spain, a standout achievement for its distributor, Warner Bros. Entertainment España.
Marshland now figures with nine category recognitions as the leading contender for 2015’s Platino Awards, taking in movies from Spain, Latin America and Portugal, which takes place July 18 in Marbella.
Written by Rodriguez and his near-career-long co-scribe Rafael Cobos, and set in Spain’s deep South in 1980, Marshland begins in classic crime thriller style with two homicide detectives, one a Francoist hardliner, the other younger and more pliable with a bright future ahead of him in Madrid, being called in to investigate the disappearance of two teen girls on Seville’s flatlands, a sprawling marsh expanse of stunning natural beauty and base poverty ruled by a few families certainly not willing to give up their centuries-old power and privileges – economic, social or of droit du seigneur.
Marshland impressed for its stunning, often kinetic, and varied cinematography: It’s made up of some 170 sequences, some multi-shot, some not. It also won critical plaudits for the interplay between the two cops who realize that they must put aside their personal differences if they’re to stop a serial killer, and the shaded balance of its portrait of one, played by Gutierrez. Capable of absolute heroism, he also tortured suspects under Franco and will never be hauled up in court for that.
“Marshland has been compared to everything from the first season of True Detective to Seven, and is a first class thriller, and the Goya Awards are a testament to the quality of the filmmaking,” said Hudson.
Todo Cine Latino will look to build word-of-mouth via festivals; AZ Films will release the film in Canada on August 14, while Outsider will release in the U.S. on August 21 in Miami, where “Marshland” had its U.S. premiere in March at the Miami Film Festival.
Marshland will then be released on digital streaming site Todocinelatino.com, which is dedicated to the release of the best in Latin Cinema in North America.
The 43-year-old Spanish filmmaker’s latest film, the thriller La isla mínima, performed up to expectations at the 29th Goya Awards, winning in 10 of the 17 categories in which it competed, including Best Film and Best Director.
The film’s stars, Javier Gutierrez, and Nerea Barros, won the Best Actor and Best New Actress awards, respectively, during Saturday night’s show.
La isla mínima also won in the Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Music Score, among other categories.
“El Niño,” which received 16 nominations, won four Goyas.
La isla mínima was selected to represent Spain at Mexico’s Ariel Awards, according to the Spanish Motion Picture Academy.
Argentina’s Relatos Salvaje took home the Goya for Best Ibero-American Film.
The movie, a Spanish-Argentine production directed by Damian Szifron, beat out “Conducta” (Cuba), “Kaplan” (Uruguay) and “La Distancia Mas Larga” (Venezuela) for the prize.
Spanish actor Antonio Banderas received a Goya of Honor for his achievements in the movie industry.
“The only way to fight mediocrity is to focus on our cultural values,” Banderas said, referring to the achievements of illustrious Spaniards such as Pablo Picasso, Francisco de Goya, Antonio Machado and Federico Garcia Lorca.
“Our artists, our intellectuals are the best way to know what we are, how we got here,” Banderas said, adding that mediocrity had become “the best business of our times.”
Banderas thanked director Pedro Almodovar for helping him professionally.
“I can’t understand my career without the seven films with him, including my American career, I almost have to say that I owe it to him,” Banderas said.
The drama, exploring family relationships, follows three brothers who meet to discuss what to do with their octogenarian father, who has started showing strange behavior.
