Tag Archives: Canal Plus

Alejandro Amenábar “Thesis” to Get English-Language Remake Treatment from Sentient Entertainment 

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Alejandro Amenábar is seeing his thesis revisited…

Sentient Entertainment has snagged the English-language remake rights to Thesis, a horror-thriller from the 49-year-old Spanish-Chilean film director, screenwriter, composer and BAFTA Award nominee.

Alejandro Amenábar

Amenábar’s original film won seven Goya Awards and other accolades upon its release in 1996.

The original film centered on Ángela (Ana Torrent), a student writing a thesis about violence, who comes upon a snuff video where a girl is tortured to death, soon discovering that the victim was an alumna of her school.

Sentient acquired control of the rights to Thesis from FilmSharks-owned The Remake Co. and Enrique Cerezo’s VideoMercury, in what’s described as a highly competitive bidding war.

Cerezo, who is the president of European football club Atlético Madrid, originally acquired the film rights when he purchased Sogecine, the Spanish production company formerly owned by Canal Plus.

Sentient’s Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin will produce the remake with Rud and Aliwen Entertainment’s Lucas Akoskin, with Cerezo exec producing.

“Amenabar was ahead of his time in making Thesis. Our culture has become more fascinated and obsessed with sex and violence than ever. The desensitization of violence in the media has reached an all-time high and to devastating effect,” said Tab. “Through a university campus experience, we want to tell the next generation’s story as authentic as possible, touching on what students today are feeling and suffering in accordance with mental health and the pressures ahead of them. All of this is hidden in a great investigative thriller.”

The full-service management and production company founded by Tab in 2010 also recently acquired rights to Amenábar’s horror-thriller The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, and is developing a remake with Universal Pictures and Aliwen Entertainment’s Akoskin. The original was released by Miramax in 2001, going on to gross more than $200M worldwide.

Cámara to Star in Paolo Sorrentino’s Eight-Episode Series “The Young Pope”

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Javier Cámara is getting his Masters…

The 48-year-old Spanish actor has been cast in Paolo Sorrentino’s The Young Pope.

Javier Cámara

Starring Jude Law and Diane Keaton, the eight-episode series that tells the fictional story of the beginning of the Pontificate of Pius XIII, an Italian-American born Lenny Belardo.

Law is Pius XIII/Lenny with Keaton as Sister Mary, a nun from the U.S. The plot centers on the controversial story of the beginning of Pius’ Pontificate. A complex and conflicted character, he is a man of great power who’s stubbornly resistant to the Vatican courtiers, unconcerned with the implications on his authority.

Cámara, who starred in the Pedro Almodóvar films Talk to Her and Bad Education, is set to play Cardinal Gutierrez, Vatican City Master of Ceremonies.

Other cast members include James Cromwell as Cardinal Michael Spencer, Silvio Orlando (The Caiman) as Secretary of State Cardinal Voiello, Scott Shepherd (And So It Goes) as Cardinal Dussolier and Belgian actress Cécile de France (The Kid With A Bike) as Sofia, who is in charge of marketing in Vatican City.

Swimming Pool‘s Ludivine Sagnier is Esther, the wife of a Swiss guard; and Toni Bertorelli (Passion Of The Christ) has been cast as Cardinal Caltanissetta.

Sorrentino, who won the Foreign Language Oscar for The Greaty Beauty and helmed this year’s Cannes Film Festival entry Youth, is directing all eight episodes of The Young Pope.

Sorrentino says the series will cover “The clear signs of God’s existence. The clear signs of God’s absence. How faith can be searched for and lost. The greatness of holiness, so great as to be unbearable when you are fighting temptations and when all you can do is to yield to them. The inner struggle between the huge responsibility of the Head of the Catholic Church and the miseries of the simple man that fate (or the Holy Spirit) chose as Pontiff. Finally, how to handle and manipulate power in a state whose dogma and moral imperative is the renunciation of power and selfless love towards one’s neighbor.”

Additional cast members include: Guy Boyd, Andre Gregory, Sebastian Roché, Marcello Romolo, Ignazio Oliva, Vladimir Bibic and Nadie Kammalaweera.

Production on the Sky, HBO and Canal Plus drama began last week with the full cast now set.

Messi Breaks Barcelona’s All-Time All-Game Goals Record

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Lionel Messi is the ultimate goal man…

The 26-year-old Argentine footballer, a record-setting four-time Ballon d’Or winner, broke Futbol Club Barcelona’s all-time all-game goals count with a hat trick in the team’s 7-0 La Liga rout of Osasuna.

Lionel Messi

The previous tally of 369 goals had managed to stand for 87 years, and been held by Philippines-born striker Paulino Alcantara, who scored 142 official goals and 227 in friendly games in an era before the Spanish league had been formally established.

Messi’s latest feat raised his count to 371 goals [344 in official games and 27 in friendlies], at just 26 years of age and in less than nine years as a first-team player.

Monday’s local newspapers celebrated the achievement, with Mundo Deportivo going with a simple ‘Legend — 371 goals’ on its front page. Sport’s cover read ‘Historic Hat trick — Messi 371’, while inside the Catalan paper had a graphic breaking down both players’ goal-scoring feats.

Messi himself told Catalan station TV3 after the game that he had been well aware that the record was about to fall.

“I had heard everywhere that I was closing in on [Alcantara],” the Argentine said. “When you see you are close you want to do it, for what it means in the history of a club this big. A lot of years have passed since it was reached. Many more years will pass before it is overcome again.”

But he maintained that the three points, with Alexis Sanchez, Andres Iniesta, Pedro Rodriguez and Christian Tello also getting on the scoresheet, had been the day’s most important development.

“The important thing is that the team keeps winning, we have come from doing impressive things, and winning everything, and we deserve to keep going like this,” Messi said. “I am very happy for the game we played, we came in from another good one against [Manchester] City and we had to improve the image from the last time. Since the game against Valladolid we received a lot of harsh criticism. We know that we were not good, but this gives us confidence again.”

Messi also said that he now felt fully over his recent injury issues, and dismissed recent speculation which had suggested he was considering a transfer this summer.

“I feel good, in the last two weeks each time I feel better, I hope I can keep going like this,” Messi said. “The injury is passed now and forgotten, I am picking up rhythm and confidence. As long as the people want I will stay here. My intention is to retire with this Barca jersey. I am happy here.”

Iniesta told Canal Plus pitchside reporter that there was little left to say about a player unique in football history.

“It has all been more than said,” the midfielder said. “All the adjectives come up short. You must congratulate him and congratulate Barca for having a unique player.”

Next for Messi could be the all-time ‘clasico’ goalscoring mark held by Real Madrid’s Alfredo Di Stefano [19], which will fall if he scores at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu next Sunday. Also within range is the Champions League tally currently held by another former Blancos hero Raul Gonzalez [71], which Messi needs just four more goals to match.