Laura Esquivel: Last News

Anna Marie de la Fuente Barcelona-based Scenic Rights, the leading literary rights broker for Spanish-language film and TV series, has officially opened its Mexico City office as it continues to expand its purview across key territories, including Madrid, Los Angeles and most recently, Prague.The Mexico City office opening, delayed twice by the pandemic, kicks off operations on Monday March 7. According to Scenic Rights CEO, Sydney Borjas, the company’s Mexican branch will oversee more than 30 book to film-TV project adaptations, mostly into series.Ana Karen Larios, previously a foreign rights manager at VF Literary Agency, has been tapped as Scenic Rights’ content manager in Mexico and will report to the agency’s Chief Operating Officer Ignacio Diaz.

Veteran producer and sales agent Rosa Bosch has joined the Madrid-based distributor and international sales agency Begin Again Films. Bosch will serve as part of the company’s international department. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente In an exclusive one-on-one interview with Variety, Fernando Medin, president and managing director of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, drilled down onthe company’s programming and growth strategy for the region where it launches its rebranded streaming platform, Max, on Feb.

Katie Holmes is taking boho chic to the red carpet. The actress attended the American Ballet Theatre’s opening night performance of Like Water For Chocolate in New York City on June 22nd. She looked stunning in a long black crocheted dress that showed off her toned figure.

Emiliano De Pablos Entering into a post-“Money Heist” phase, the Spanish TV fiction industry is immersed in international growth strategies as it promotes at home new and original voices that create TV stories with universal appeal.Key production-distribution TV companies such as The Mediapro Studio, Onza Entertainment, Secuoya Studios and Buendía Estudios are building beachheads in the Americas to strengthen the standout place in the sun of the global TV drama business that the Spanish TV industry already occupies.As by far the biggest part of a 600 million people Spanish-speaking community around the globe, Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic represent the most obvious market for growth.However, a common ambition for Spanish companies eyeing the Americas is to develop projects in the region but aimed at the global market, which are also increasingly based on IP.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentThe biggest product in Spain of the M&A boom which looks set to power much future entertainment growth in Europe, Buendía Estudios, a joint venture of Telefonica’s Movistar Plus and Atresmedia, is fast driving into second-phase expansion in Latin America.In one move last November, Buendía tapped former Telemundo Global Studios exec Ana Paula Valdovinos as director of production and development for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic.Valdovinos will be based out of Mexico, Latin America’s “nerve and talent center,” she said, as the country also accounts for approximately 70% of the 70 million Latinx population in the U.S.In another development, Buendía has confirmed to Variety further details on its first Latin America project, “Swift as Desire,” Billed as a fantasy romantic drama, the series “Swift as Desire” is structured as a six-part, 50-minute adaptation of a hallmark novel by Mexico’s Laura Esquivel, published in 2001.Head writers are Esquivel herself and Marcela Fuentes Beraín (“El diario de Daniela”).Buendía Estudios’ editorial director of series Sonia Martínez – an executive producer on “Money Heist,” “Veneno” and now “Cardo” – also serves as executive producer on “Swift as Desire.”Narrated in two timelines, the series tells the life of Júbilo, born  with a special gift of communication.