Pablo Larraín & His Brother’s Fabula Productions Renews First-Look Partnership with Freemantle

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín and his brother are extending their Freemantle deal…

The 47-year-old Chilean filmmaker and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula Productions has renewed its their first-look partnership with Freemantle.

The agreement will reportedly result in the Larrain brothers working even more closely to develop a fresh slate of original dramas and films.

Under the accord, Fremantle’s international sales wing, FMI, will distribute the drama projects worldwide.

Global production and distribution company Fremantle and the Larraín’s Santiago, Chile-based banner Fabula struck their original first-look deal in 2019.

Under the accord, Fabula has produced prize-winning series La Jauría and Señorita 89 as well as the upcoming Midnight Family for Apple TV+, a 10-episode medical drama inspired by the award-winning documentary of the same name.

On the feature film front, Fabula and Fremantle have just wrapped production on Sebastián Lelio’s film musical The Wave, in partnership with Participant Media.

The drama tells the story of the mass university rallies that took place during Chile’s so-called “Feminist May” in 2018.

Further upcoming feature collaborations include Pablo Larraín’s upcoming bio-film Maria starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, produced alongside Komplizen Film.

The partners said in a statement that the Fabula team would continue to work closely with Fremantle’s CEO, Global Drama, Christian Vesper and Seb Shorr, COO, Global Drama.

“Pablo and Juan encapsulate the bold and inventive filmmaking we proudly support at Fremantle and I am delighted that that our renewed deal means working even closer with them. Fabula is such an exciting company creating original, passionate film and drama titles, and we are thrilled to have them as our valued partners,” said Vesper.

Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín, CCO and CEO of Fabula respectively said the past five years had been a period of “great collaboration” and “mutual growth on many levels.”

“Fremantle has given us many tools to understand the industry and how to move forward. They have been wonderful travel companions with fantastic taste. We are more than happy to go deeper into our partnership with them in the upcoming years.”

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” to Be First Netflix Film Released on Blu-Ray/DVD

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Alfonso Cuaron’s last project is headed beyond the stream…

The 57-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s Oscar-winning film Roma will be the first Netflix film to get a Blu-Ray and DVD release, due to the Criterion Collection launching a special edition in February.

The release will include five separate documentaries about the creation of the film, and will feature the same 4K master and Dolby Atmos sound that were part of the theatrical release.

Roma won Academy Awards for Cuaron’s directing and cinematography, as well as the foreign-language film Oscar.

Roma follows the Oscar-nominee Yalitza Aparicio, who plays a live-in housekeeper in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma in Mexico City. It became Mexico’s first winner of the Oscar for foreign-language feature. The film, produced by Esperanto Filmoj and Participant Media, joined previous foreign-language film nominees Life Is Beautiful, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Letters From Iwo Jima, Babel, and Amour as a nominee in the best picture category.

Roma is also the first Netflix film to be added to the Criterion Collection. The documentaries include “Road to Roma,” about the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Cuarón; “Snapshots from the Set”; documentaries about the sound, post-production processes, the theatrical campaign and social impact in Mexico.

Colombia Selects Alejandro Landes’ “Monos” as Its Pick for the Oscar’s International Feature Film Race

Posted on August 29, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Alejandro Landes is representing Colombia…

The 39-year-old Brazil-born Colombian-Ecuadorian film director’s latest project, the Spanish-language survival thriller Monos, has been selected as Colombia’s selection for the International Feature Film race at the 92nd Academy Awards.

The film centers on a young group of soldiers and rebels training on a remote mountain in Latin America with an American hostage (Julianne Nicholson).

Moisés Arias, Sofia Buenaventura, Deiby Rueda, Karen Quintero and Laura Castrillón star in the film, which Landes co-wrote with Alexis Dos Santos.

The film won a World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Awardat this year’s Sundance Film Festivalin Park City, Utah.

The news comes as Neon and co-distributor Participant Media prepare to release the film theatrically in the U.S. on September 13.

Colombia has only seen one film nominated in what was formerly known as the Best Foreign Language Film category. That was Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent in 2015, the year Hungary’s Son of Saulwon the Oscar.

Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” Wins Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival

Posted on September 9, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Alfonso Cuaron is the Lion king…

The 56-year-old Mexican filmmaker and Oscar winner’s black-and-white Mexican drama Roma has won the Golden Lion at the 75th Venice Film Festival.

It’s the first movie from Netflix to take such an honor at a major festival, and the second movie in a row from a Mexican filmmaker to win here. Last year, Guillermo del Toro’s Golden Lion winner, The Shape of Water, went all the way to a Best Picture Oscar.

Del Toro was jury president this year and in announcing his dear friend as the winner, joked, “Now, let me see if I can pronounce the name correctly.” As it did last year with The Shape of Water, the press room erupted in applause when Roma won.

An ode to Cuaron’s Mexico City childhood, Roma, co-produced by Participant Media and Cuarón’s Esperanto Filmoj, has been embraced here on the Lido and its momentum accelerated when it hit Telluride.

Cuaron said the award and the Venice festival are “incredibly meaningful to me.” He previously opened the festivities in 2013 with Gravity and was jury president two years ago. He also noted the serendipity of today being the birthday of the woman upon whom Roma is based. At the post-awards press conference, Cuaron was asked if it was more meaningful to him that Roma marks Netflix’s first big win at a major festival, or if he was prouder of the movie on a personal level. He quipped of the intensely personal film, “Do you really need an answer to that?”

Del Toro noted the decision to award Roma was “entirely unanimous by the entire jury. So, 9-0.”

Netflix is doing an awards-qualifying theatrical run for the movie that Cuaron wrote, directed, produced and shot, and which is now firmly on the path.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

VENICE 75
Golden Lion
Roma, dir: Alfonso Cuaron

Grand Jury Prize
The Favourite, dir: Yorgos Lanthimos

Silver Lion, Best Director
Jacques Audiard, The Sisters Brothers

Volpi Cup, Best Actress
Olivia Colman, The Favourite

Volpi Cup, Best Actor
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate

Best Screenplay
Joel & Ethan Coen, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs

Special Jury Prize
The Nightingale, dir: Jennifer Kent

Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Baykali Ganambarr, The Nightingale

HORIZONS
Best Film
Manta Ray, dir: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng

Best Director
Ozen (The River), dir: Emir Baigazin

Special Jury Prize
Anons (The Announcement), dir: Mahmut Fazil Coskun

Best Actress
Natalya Kudryashova, The Man Who Surprised Everyone

Best Actor
Kais Nasif, Tel Aviv On Fire

Best Screenplay
Pema Tseden, Jinpa

Best Short Film
Kado, dir: Aditya Ahmad

Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film
The Day I Lost My Shadow, dir: Soudade Kaadan

VENICE VIRTUAL REALITY
Best VR
Spheres: Chorus Of The Cosmos, dir: Eliza McNitt

Best VR Experience
Buddy VR, dir: Chuck Chae

Best VR Story
L’Ile Des Morts, dir: Benjamin Nuel

VENICE CLASSICS
Best Documentary on Cinema
The Great Buster: A Celebration, dir: Peter Bogdanovich

Best Restoration
La Notte Di San Lorenzo, dirs: Paolo Vittorio Taviani

Celis Producing First TV Series, “Monstruos Perfectos”

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Nicolas Celis is ready for the small screen…

The 30-year old Mexican film producer is preparing for his first television series, Monstruos Perfectos, which recently received development support from the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) under the new TV series support scheme launched in late 2016.

Meanwhile, Celis’ Pimienta Films, one of Mexico’s leading production outfits, is completing production on Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” his first picture lensed in Mexico since “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” and “Birds of Passage,” from Colombia’s Oscar nominated Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”).

Monstruos Perfectos is set in Mexico and will be produced by Pimienta, with external producers Marion d’Ornato and Enrique M. Rizo. Rizo has worked with Celis as second assistant director on Semana Santa, and as production manager on Tempestad, Soy Nero and The Untamed.

“This will be my first experience in TV,” Celis revealed to Variety, although he refrained from outlining the story. “I’m really happy to jump aboard. For me this is completely new world. I really love that IMCINE is exploring new content opportunities. We want to make a TV series that’s much more cinematic, than TV series produced in Mexico so far.”

Celis said that it’s been great to work with Cuaron on Roma, having previously worked with his brother, Carlos, on “Rudo y Cursi,” early in his career, and having been one of the producers on the 2015 pic Desierto, by his son, Jonas.

“Roma” chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s and is produced by Cuaron, Celis, Gabriela Rodriguez (“Gravity”), and exec produced by Participant Media.

Roma is Celis’ first period movie. Its 1970s setting was prior to his own birth – in 1986 – which he says provoked some wisecracks during the shoot. “For me it’s been my most challenging and interesting project so far. I’m a big fan of Alfonso’s work since a kid and I loved that he wanted me to work on his new film.”

Guerra’s Birds of Passage is also set in the 1970s and is produced by Colombia’s Ciudad Lunar (Cristina Gallego and Katrin Pors), as well as Celis and Argentine producers MC Productions and Buffalo Films, with Colombia’s Caracol TV also on board.

Celis previously worked with Pors on The Untamed. “Working with Katrin has been a great discovery,” said Celis. “We’re trying to work with her on our next projects.”

Cuarón Working with Participant Media on His Next Feature Film

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Alfonso Cuarón is readying his next project…

The 54-year-old Mexican filmmaker is teaming with Participant Media on his next feature film, an untitled project he’s writing and directing.

The movie will chronicle a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s, and production is slated to begin in Mexico this fall.

It’ll be the Oscar winner’s first movie shot there since his breakout 2001 hit Y Tu Mamá También.

Cuarón won the Best Director Oscar for his last film Gravity, which was nominated for seven Oscars in 2014 including Best Picture and won seven.

Participant Media Releases Trailer for Isaac’s Thriller “A Most Violent Year”

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac’s most violent role could finally earn him an Academy Award nomination…

Participant Media has released the trailer for the 35-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor’s latest film “A Most Violent Year.”

Isaac and Jessica Chastain star in the film, which was written and directed by J.C. Chandor (All is Lost).

“A Most Violent Year” is set in New York City during the winter of 1981 — one of the most violent years in the city’s history. The film follows the lives of an immigrant family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities amid violence, decay and corruption.

A24 has given an awards-season release date of December 31 for the thriller.

It will open in Los Angeles and New York on New Year’s Eve before expanding during January.

Bichir’s FX Series “The Bridge” Earns Peabody Award

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Demián Bichir’s critically acclaimed television series has earned a coveted award.

The 2014 Peabody Award winners — highlighting the best in television, radio and web storytelling — were announced this week on CBS This Morning, with FX’s The Bridge, starring the 50-year-old Mexican actor, among this year’s honorees.

From Shine America and FX Productions, the crime drama is set in motion when a murder victim is left literally on the border of West Texas and Northern Mexico.

The Bridge has been honored for “its rare, non-stereotypical depiction of two cultures rubbing against and informing each other.”

It’s the latest recognition for the series, which will begin its second season this summer.

Last June, The Bridge was honored, along with five others, with the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series.

This year’s Peabody Awards ceremony will be held on May 19 at New York’s Waldorf Astoria.

Portions of the University of Georgia‘s annual awards will be televised in a special that will air on Participant Media‘s upstart Pivot cable network.

Bayona to Direct the Film Adaptation of “A Monster Calls”

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Juan Antonio Bayona has landed a monster project…

The 37-year-old Spanish filmmaker, whose most recent film The Impossible earned him five Goya Awards, including Best Director, will next direct the film A Monster Calls.

It’s a film adaptation of the children’s fantasy novel of the same name by Patrick Ness from an original idea by Siobhan Dowd.

Set in present-day England, it centers on a boy who struggles to cope with the consequences of his mother’s terminal cancer; he is serially visited in the middle of the night by a monster who tells stories. Dowd suffered from terminal cancer herself when she started the story and died before she could write it.

The film adaptation is already on course to begin production this fall for a 2016 release.

Ness adapted the script his Carnegie Medal– and Greenaway Medal-winning work.

The film is being financed by River Road Entertainment and Participant Media. Meanwhile, Focus Features has committed $20 million to release A Monster Calls.

While Bayona is separately attached to helm a sequel to the zombie saga World War Z this film will come first.

Exclusive Media Acquires International Rights to Quílez’s “Out of the Dark,” Starring Julia Stiles

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Lluís Quílez’s feature film directorial debut could reach a worldwide audience.

Exclusive Media has nabbed the international rights to the 34-year-old Spanish director’s supernatural thriller Out of the Dark.

Written by Carriers scribes David Pastor and Alex Pastor, the film is currently in post-production and eyed for release in 2014.

Starring Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman, the film centers on a couple and their daughter who move to Colombia to take over a family manufacturing plant, only to realize their new home is haunted.

Exclusive Media is repping and selling worldwide rights to the film, which was partly financed by Participant Media.

Quílez’s previous credits include the short films Yanindara, Avatar and El siguiente.

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