Argentina Selects Natalia Meta’s “The Intruder” for Oscars’ International Feature Film Competition

Natalia Meta is hoping to send an Intruder to the Oscars

Argentina has selected the Argentinian director’s horror-thriller The Intruder (El Prófugo), as its entry in the Best International Feature Film category for the upcoming Academy Awards.

Natalia Meta, The Intruder

The film, described as a pyscho-sexual fantastic thriller, debuted at Berlinale last year.

The Intruder stars Érica Rivas, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Daniel Hendler, Cecilia Roth, Guillermo Arengo, Agustín Rittano, and Mirta Busnelli

It’s the story of Inés, a young woman who after a traumatic episode during a trip with her partner begins to confuse herself between the real and the imaginary.

Producers on the film are Rei Cine and Picnic Producciones, with co-producers Infinity Hill and Barraca Producciones, in association with Piano, Televisión Federal (Telefe) and Viacom International Studios.

Disney released the film locally.

Bérénice Bejo to Star in Pablo Trapero’s Thriller “La Quietud”

Bérénice Bejo is embracing the tranquilty

The 41-year-old Argentine actress will star in the Argentine thriller La Quietud from Pablo Trapero, who won the 2015 Silver Lion Best Director prize at the Venice Film Festival for El Clan.

Berenice Bejo

The film stars Bejo, Martina Gusmán and Edgar Ramírez and centers on two sisters’ re-encounter and attempt at closure on a common troubled past.

The film is being produced by Trapero’s Matanza Cine and Telefé in coproduction with Sony Pictures International Productions.

Production has begun in Buenos Aires.

Bejo earned an Academy Award nomination for her breakthrough role in The Artist. Her other film credits include A Knight’s Tale, The Past and The Search.

Telefe’s Telenovela “Un Año Para Recordar” Getting an American Makeover for NBC

It looks like NBC could be the latest network to get into the telenovela remake business…

The network has given a script plus penalty commitment to A Year to Remember, a drama based on the Telefe telenovela Un Año Para Recordar, from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Telefe USA.

Un Año Para Recordar

It marks the first network sale for Telefe USA since the LA-based outpost of Argentina’s largest broadcaster, Telefe, was launched in March.

The adaptation, written by Michael Folley, is a crime procedural that centers on a Boston homicide detective who’s confronted by her husband over an affair she’s having with her partner. In their ensuing fight, she accidentally kills him – only to wake the next day to find it’s a year earlier — her husband still alive, the affair not yet begun. Given a second chance, she somehow must find a way to keep the memory of that tragic night from becoming reality.

The original telenovela, which aired in Argentina in 2011, starred Carla Peterson and Gastón Pauls.

Kaplan has experience with Latin American formats. His company developed and produced the well-reviewed Freeform drama series Chasing Life, which was based on a Televisa telenovela.

Telefe to Produce Television Project About Soccer Legend Diego Maradona

The story of Diego Maradona’s life is headed to the small screen…

Telefe, Argentina’s leading television network, will bring to the screen the life of the 55-year-old soccer legend in an ambitious production aimed at the global market.

Diego Maradona

One of Argentina’s greatest living heroes, Maradona’s life is the stuff of legend and melodrama. From rags to riches, he suffered the pressures of fame. His career could have been far more successful if it had not been for a brutal Italian defense in the 1982 World Cup and, in latter years, a battle against drug-dependency.

Maradona captained the Argentine soccer team that won the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and was a finalist in Italy four years later. He helped top clubs such as Boca Juniors in Argentina, Barcelona in Spain and Naples in Italy to national championships, scored mesmerizing goals, and pulled off sleights of hand on the field – his so-called Mano de Dios goal against England – which are among the top highlights of the most popular sport in the world.

Diego Maradona

Drug use sparked suspensions, the most crucial at the 1994 World Cup. In 2000, a cocaine overdose reportedly nearly killed him, prompting him to enter rehab in Cuba.

“Every month of my life has enough for someone to write 100 chapters. Everything that I lived exceeds any fiction. I’m happy and excited that Telefe is developing this project for the world. It is the story of my life,” Maradona said in a statement.

“This is an incredible challenge as a producer to think about turning into fiction the life of the best soccer player of all time, and probably the most famous person in the world,” said Telefe contents and international business director Tomas Yankelevich.

“We think of a unprecedented super-production, and for that we are looking for partners to join us. We expect to make a global content without borders,” he added.

Telefe’s Yankelevich and Maradona recently inked their production alliance. Large questions remain to be answered such as if the fiction which Telefe describes will have a conventional feature structure or also incorporate some form of longer television format.

Another question about the Maradona project is what active involvement the soccer star will have in the project. Maradona was one of the first modern soccer stars to have his failings exposed to the mass media. The question many will be asking is what kind of man lies behind an unquestioned and colorful soccer genius.