Julio Rojas Penning His First Rom-Com Film “Detras de ti”

Julio Rojas is bringing the romance…

The Chilean author/screenwriter, whose serial podcast Case 63 was Spotify’s most popular podcast in Latin America and was adapted into English with Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac starring, is writing his first rom-com following the global success of Case 63.

Julio Rojas,Titled Detras de ti (working title), the upcoming project is being co-produced by Spain’s EvaFilms and David Naranjo’s Pris & Batty, best known for its hit comedies 8 apellidos vascos, 8 apellidos catalanes and Toc toc.

“Ever since I listened to ‘Case 63,’ I was very keen to work with Julio and bring his work to the big screen,” said Eva Cebrián of EvaFilms, adding: “Julio is an indisputable storyteller who has most understood the audio format, given his deep experience as a screenwriter.”

While Rojas has a predilection for sci-fi projects, Cebrián pointed out that romance was very much intrinsic to his work. Detras de ti will be a departure for Rojas, but it’s set in the near future and will still bear science-fiction elements.

Rojas is also known for co-writing Pablo Fendrik’s Latino sci-fi series The Shelter, story editing Lucia Puenzo’s La Jauria and penning a number of acclaimed features, led by Marcela Said’s The Summer of Flying Fish and Matias Bize’s The Memory of Water.

To be directed by Vicente Villanueva, Detras de ti centers on 24-year-old Joaquin, an aspiring screenwriter who while trying to land a job at a streaming platform, forms part of an “image support team,” a top secret service where a group of nerds in a control room connect visually and aurally with a celebrity to guide him through situations and make him appear more intelligent, creative and talented than he really is.

When Joaquin sees his client, B-list actor Daniel Casañas, start falling in love with the same girl he loves, the boundaries between appearance and reality begin to blur for everyone. This is “a romantic comedy in a world where the real and the artificial, where the authentic and the apparent grow increasingly muddled,” the synopsis says.

EvaFilms and Pris & Batty are also co-producing fantasy tale La Ternura, which is being shot in the Dominican Republic.

EvaFilms was founded in 2019 by Cebrián, who held executive positions at pubcaster RTVE as head of film and later, of TV programming. She also founded OnDemand Media, an audiovisual producer and consultant in Mexico and Spain, was an advisor to the digital creative agency Social Noise and was director of new projects and developments for Stage Entertainment Spain, a company that produces some of the most successful musicals in the world.

Dolores Heredia to Star on Season Two of Lionsgate+’s “Señorita 89”

Dolores Heredia has landed a (god)mother of a role…

The 56-year-old Mexican actress has been added to the cast of Lionsgate+’s Señorita 89, which has been renewed for a second season.

Dolores Heredia Heredia will be joined by Yoshira Escárrega as a series regular on the new season, with production kicking 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 keep the crown atop her head, unbeknown to most, there’s a revolution brewing in the depths of the country where there’s a new queen looking to shake things up and change the rules of the game.

In addition to Salas, Romo, Dupeyrón, and Gutiérrez, returning cast members include Juan Manuel BernalLuis Ernesto FrancoEdwarda GurrolaCoty CamachoJuan Carlos Vives, and Aida López.

“After the incredible reception of the first season, both in Mexico and the rest of the world, it was an immense joy to receive the confirmation that there would be a second season,” said Lucia Puenzo, showrunner and writer of the series. “In the second season, our protagonists have understood that nothing is achieved by asking for forgiveness or permission. They are ready to set fire to all limits, borders, privileges… and break once and for, all the stereotypes that say that only princesses have the right to exist.”

Season 1 of the Lionsgate+ Original Series became the top-performing series ever on the service in Mexico – with viewership increasing more than 243% from the premiere episode to the finale, according to the streamer.

Señorita 89 pulled back the curtain on some of the truths and challenges women faced in the ’80s, and we saw viewers wanting more week-over-week,” said Jeff Cooke, Senior Vice President, Programming, International Digital Networks for Starz. “We are thrilled to team up again with Lucia Puenzo and Fabula, to continue the impactful storytelling and its relevancy in today’s modern world that reinforces our commitment to co-producing local and culturally relevant content.”

This eight-episode second season is executive produced by Pablo Larraín, Juan de Dios Larraín, Ángela Poblete, and Mariane Hartard from Fabula and Christian Vesper at Fremantle; written by Lucía Puenzo, who is also a director, María Renée Prudencio and Tatiana Mereñuk; and directed by Nicolás Puenzo, Sílvia Quer and Jimena Montemayor.

Fremantle will handle the International distribution of the series.

Pantaya Releases First-Look Trailer for Lucía Puenzo’s New Series “Señorita 89”

Lucía Puenzo is preparing for a little pageantry

Pantaya has released the official first-look trailer and teaser key art for the Argentine author, screenwriter and film director’s Señorita 89, one of the most anticipated of series from Latin America in 2022,

Lucía PuenzoPuenzo’s new series will premiere in the U.S. on February 27.

Produced by Academy Award winners Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín and Fabula, PantayaStarzplay and Fremantle, “Señorita 89” is showrun by Puenzo, who is rapidly emerging as one of the Latin America’s foremost film and television writer-directors after La Jauría, first fruit of a first-look deal between Fabula and Fremantle.

La Jauría drilled down on multiple forms of sexual abuse, powered by a thriller format. Señorita 89 looks as if it might do the same but in a far different context, exposing the unseen and unseemly reality behind the glamor of a 1989 Miss Mexico beauty pageant.

The drama thriller is set in a seeming paradise, La Encantada estate in wooded Mexican hills where 32 beauty queens arrive for three-months of grooming before competing for become Miss Mexico.

The paradise soon becomes a living hell. Some of this hell’s circles are teased in this first look, as well as its disruptive and often very human passions – carnal, romantic, narcotic – and a plush high style which forefronts, however, restrictive framing, whether gateways, passages and corridors.

Also introduced, however briefly, is a top notch Mexican-Chilean cast playing what looks like the series’ main characters: Miss Guerrero (Bárbara López), with a perfect body and self-destructive bent; Miss Chihuahua (Leidi Gutiérrez), who grew up working in a sweat shop; Elena (Ximena Romo), a brilliant post-grad student brought in to teach the girls culture; and above all, Concepción, embodied by Ilse Salas, one of the finest Mexican actors of her generation who is co-director of La Encantada.

There’s also the suggestion of a fairy tale in the cozy establishing shot of the house in the big woods and the positioning of Concepción as a step-mother to her wards; and echoes of film styles and classic works – ‘50s American melodrama,

Concepción’s husband as a Doctor Frankenstein, Dante’s “Inferno” – which Puenzo is so good at picking up and reworking to instructive effect.

Just how all of this rich material will play out remains to be seen. Pantaya will premiere “Señorita 89’s” first two episodes on February 27 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, followed by a weekly episode every Sunday.

The full season of eight episodes will be available for binging on April 10. Starzplay will distribute the series in Spain and Latin America. Fremantle handles global distribution.

Eva Longoria to Star in the Anthology Feature “Women’s Stories”

Eva Longoria is telling stories

The 45-year-old Mexican American actress has joined the all-star cast of the anthology feature Women’s Stories, whose segments will be directed by filmmakers including Catherine Hardwicke.

Eva Longoria

Longoria joins a roster of cast additions that includes Cara DelevingneMargherita BuyMarcia Gay Harden, Leonor Varela and Jacqueline Fernandez.

The film will be comprised of six segments directed by female directors from different parts of the world, shot in Italy, India and the U.S. They will range in genre from drama to comedy, docu-drama to animation. The cast will be all female.

The first four segments have been mapped out: Unspoken will be directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi (Me, Myself & Her) and star decorated Italian actress Margherita Buy (My Mother), the seven-time David di Donatello award-winner; Lagonegro will be directed by Lucia Puenzo (La Jauria) and star Desperate Housewives and Overboard actress Longoria; Elbows Deep will be directed by Twilight filmmaker Hardwicke and star model and actress Delevingne (Suicide Squad), Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) and Jasmine Luv (Starter Pack); and Sharing A Ride will be directed by Leena Yadav (Three Cards) and feature Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez and transgender model Anjali Lama.

Producing are Iervolino Entertainment (Waiting For The Barbarians) and non-profit production company We Do It Together, which campaigns for gender equality.

Chiara Tilesi, founder and President of We Do It Together, said of the project: “At We Do It Together, our mission is to enhance and change the image of women in films and media, from object to subject. We are dedicated to telling stories of women, both in front of and behind the camera. That’s why Women Stories is so important to us – we have brought together female directors, from all over the world, who collaborate and share personal stories from their own point of view. We are telling the stories of these heroines and their aspirations: from health workers to mothers, artists and business women, to name a few. We also want to be inclusive and have as many different perspectives as possible, which is why connecting globally is so important to us. Now more than ever, especially after the latest UN policy brief The Impact of Covid-19 On Women, it has emerged that gender inequality is still a very present reality and, unfortunately, we remain far from a solution. Some of the achievements that were made, are at risk of being erased once again. This is why it is so important for us to continue to tell stories about women, by women, but for everyone. Only together can men and women finally change these paradigms.”

Andrea Iervolino, President and founder of Iervolino Entertainment, added: “It gives me tremendous pride to collaborate with such an astounding ensemble, and to help deliver a message larger than the film itself. It’s important for us that this be done on a global scale, which is why we’re shooting, very carefully and safely, in Italy, India and the US.”

The project was initially announced five years ago in different form as Together Now.

HBO Max Picks Up First Season of Daniela Vega’s Spanish-Language Thriller “La Jauria”

Daniela Vega is maxing out…

WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max has picked up the first season of La Jauría, Amazon Prime Video’s Spanish-language thriller starring the 31-year-old Chilean actress and mezzo-soprano singer.

Daniela Vega

Hailing from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, which made the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, the series tells the story of the disappearance of a young girl, who becomes the center of a police investigation into an online game that grooms men into assaulting women.

HBO Max will premiere the eight-part series on December 16.

In addition to Vega, La Jauría also stars Antonia Zegers, while Lucía Puenzo is the director. Fremantle produced the show alongside Fabula and Argentine company Kapow. Fremantle handles worldwide distribution.

Amazon commissioned a second season of La Jauría in July after premiering it across Latin America and Spain. Chilean public broadcaster TVN and the Consejo Nacional de Televisión (CNTV) are co-producers.

“It’s a gripping, compelling and timely drama that addresses important topical issues regarding the epidemic of violence against women. We are confident HBO’s audience will be moved by the standout storyline and the powerful performances,” said Sheila Aguirre, EVP of content distribution and format sales, Latin America, international, Fremantle.

FilmSharks Intl. Acquires Global Sales Rights to Oreiro’s Biopic “I am Gilda”

Natalia Oreiro’s latest film project may be going global…

Guido Rud’s FilmSharks Intl. has acquired the international sales rights to the musical drama Gilda, no me arrepiento de este amor, about Argentina’s legendary cumbia star, portrayed by the 38-year-old Uruguayan singer, actress and fashion designer.

Natalia Oreiro

Picked up by Buena Vista International for Argentina, the film, aka I am Gilda (The Latin Music Saint), is currently shooting in Buenos Aires. It’s being directed by Lorena Muñoz, who co-penned the script with Tamara Viñes.

The film tells the story of Argentine cumbia singer Gilda, born Myriam Alejandra Bianchi, who succeeds in music after working as gardener and P.E. teacher, acquiring the status of a popular saint in Argentina after her tour bus crashed in 1996, killing her, her mother, her daughter and part of her band.

The biopic is toplined by Oreiro, the star of recent standout international sales and festival gems like Lucia Puenzo’s The German Doctor and Benjamin Avila’s Clandestine Childhood.

Oreiro provides her own vocals to the late singer’s hits in the film.

“Gilda, no me arrepiento de este amor” is scheduled for a September 7 theatrical release in Argentina, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of Gilda’s death.

Puenzo’s “The German Doctor” Earns 10 Sur Awards

Lucía Puenzo has 10 reasons to celebrate…

The 40-year-old Argentine author and filmmaker’s latest project The German Doctor was the top winner at the Argentine Film Academy awards ceremony, picking up 10 Sur Awards including best film and best director.

Lucía Puenzo

Puenzo’s film, Argentina’s entry into the Oscar race in the Foreign Language Film category, also picked up best actor in a leading role for Alex Brendemühl, and seven other statutes for best makeup, editing, art direction, costume design, breakthrough performance by an actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress for Elena Roger.

Produced by Historias Cinematograficas, the film portrays a fictional story based on true events, about Nazi criminal Josef Mengele (played by Brendemuhl) and the time he spent in Argentina hiding after World War II.

The German Doctor

In the story adapted from Puenzo’s own novel, Mengele meets a local family in Southern Argentina and becomes obsessed with their young daughter, to whom he secretly delivers a genetic treatment.

Oscar winner’s Juan Jose Campanella’s Foosball, a 3D animated film with the highest budget ever for a local production, picked four Sur awards, including best original score, sound design, cinematography, and adapted screenplay.

Corazon de Leon, starring local comedian Guillermo Francella, won Best Actress in a Leading Role and Breakthrough Performance by a Male Actor.

Jose Luis Garcia’s The Girl From the South, about South Korean activist Lim Sukyung, won best documentary, while Daniel Gimelberg’s Before grabbed Best Opera Prima.

The original Argentine Film Academy of Motion Arts and Science was founded in 1941 during the country’s golden era of film production, and later banned by the dictatorship in 1955. It was re-founded in Buenos Aires in 2004, and is currently headed by Juan Jose Campanella.

Argentina Submits Puenzo’s “The German Doctor” in Oscars Foreign Language Film Race

Lucía Puenzo latest film isn’t just heading to the United States… It could also earn her an Oscar nomination.

Argentina has chosen the 39-year-old Argentinian author and director’s film The German Doctor as its submission for the Best Foreign Language Film race for the upcoming Academy Awards competition.

The German Doctor

Puenzo‘s drama, called Wakolda in her native Argentina, is based on her own novel about the search for notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who hid in South America.

The thriller focuses on an Argentinian family that unwittingly puts their daughter under the care of the monster.

The German Doctor, which screened in the Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival, was recently acquired for U.S. distribution by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Argentina last won the Foreign Language Oscar in 2009 with The Secret In Their Eyes, which was directed by Juan José Campanella whose 3D animated pic Foosball is currently the top grossing local film in Argentina.

Samuel Goldwyn Films to Release Puenzo’s “The German Doctor” in the U.S.

Lucía Puenzo will be thrilling U.S. audiences in the near future…

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the 39-year-old Argentinian author and director’s latest film The German Doctor.

Screen Shot 2013-09-27 at 12.42.11 AM

Puenzo’s thriller was nominated for the Un Certain Regard Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival under the Argentinian title Wakolda.

The film is based on Puenzo’s novel about the search for notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who hid in South America.

Starring Natalia Oreiro and Diego Peretti, the film is based on the true story of an Argentinian family that unwittingly puts their daughter under the care of the monster.

Samuel Goldwyn Films will release the film in the spring.