John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Telefonica’s Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest pay TV-SVOD operator, is set to co-produce new movies from Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Iciar Bollaín, Alberto Rodríguez, Óliver Laxe and Ana Rujas.
It’s a move which sees the high-end Spanish TV powerhouse become one of Spain’s most significant movie players. Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will bow all five movies in cinema theaters and co-produce them with independent producers, Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus+ director of fiction and entertainment, said at a presentation in Madrid on Thursday.
It aims to make five-to-six features a year, he added. Movistar Plus+ has co-produced two of the highest-profile movies of distinction among recent Spanish cinema: Alejandro Amenábar’s Toronto premiere “While at War,” and Rodríguez’s “Prison 77,” a San Sebastian opener.
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