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Mubi has taken worldwide rights to two iconic series from Movistar Plus International, the overseas distributor of the biggest Spanish pay TV and SVOD operator: “La Mesias,” from “La Bola Negra” directors Los Javis,
and “Riot Police,” the first premium TV series from “The Beloved” director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
Further headlines: Nominated on Sept. 23 for an International Emmy, four-part “The Anatomy of a Moment,” from Alberto Rodriguez (“The Tigers”), has rolled out in further territories in Europe.
The in-all 33 new deals were unveiled during the first day of trading at Madrid’s mega-market and forum Iberseries & Platino Industria, where Movistar Plus has a large market presence led by screenings or presentations of top titles bound for October’s Mipcom.
On Tuesday, Movistar Plus International hosted a showcase, screening and cocktail of Spain’s sex trade chronicle “El Castillo,” a standout at San Sebastián; a screening of withering LOL Millennial comedy “Many People Have to Die,” marking out creator Victoria Martín as a major Spanish comedic talent; and a presentation of “Killing a Bear,” based crime drama turning on the deep social conflict surrounding the death of brown bear Cachou, found dead in a ravine in the Pyrenees in 2020. The “small, local story vividly illustrated the polarized world we live in,” creators Jorge and Alberto Sánchez Cabezudo have told Variety.
‘La Mesías’
A Movistar Plus Original, large scale “La Mesías” delivered a first instance of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s full-on creativity, working with the budget they required, shooting each episode with different genre influences – psychodrama, sci-fi, procedural and musical – and a pop sensibility and varying formats across multiple timelines, all of which they have now repeated in “La Bola Negra.”
“La Mesías,” like La Bola Negra,” also explores legacy and repression, here the psychological trauma left by a messianic mother, who turns her family into a cult.
“The series talks about religion, but as a form of education and this is what makes it interesting,” told Variety on set in 2023.
Key territories for the Mubi deal were announced in exclusivity by Variety in July.
‘Riot Police’
World premiering at San Sebastián in 2020 and starring “The Beloved’s” Victoria Luengo, Riot Police confirmed Sorogoyen’s ability to bring a big screen punch to his first premium series.
A six part series “Riot Police” also underscored his ability to mix genre and social point, exploring the failures and fragility of the masculine psyche as a riot police squad become the subject of an internal police enquiry led by Luengo’s character after bungling an eviction. The series closed early deals with HBO Latin America and Canal+ in France.
“The series I’ve seen rarely evolve in style,”Soroyogen told Variety in 2020. But Riot Police does in the use of hand-held, anamorphic fisheye lense camerawork for the eviction moving to a 15 minutes sequence shot in final episode.
‘The Anatomy of a Moment’
Co-produced with Arte France, starring “Money Heist’s” Alvaro Morte, “The Anatomy of a Moment” delivers Rodríguez’s fictionalized vision of how three key figures of “Shakespearian stature,” Rodríguez has said– Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, Spanish Communist Party head Santiago Carrillo and armed forces chief Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado – wrestled democracy for Spain over 1976-77and almost lost it in a 1981 botched coup d’état. New international distribution takes in pubcasters RTP (Portugal), RTS (Switzerland), RTV (Slovenia) and Cinob0 (Greece).
More Top Sellers: ‘Querer,’ ‘The New Years,’ ‘The Nameless’
A top best series Grand Prix winner at Series Mania last year, Alauda Ruiz de Azua’s’s marital rape series Querer,” part family drama, part courtroom thriller, she has observed, continues to roll out around the world. Already acquired by Arte, Querer has now been licensed to Cinobo Poland, Italy’s MyMoviesOne, Latvia’s Latvia’s Mobilais and South Korea’s LG Plus.
Movistar Plus International has closed Greece and Poland, both with Cinobo, and Latvia (Latvijas Mobilais) on Sorogoyen’s “The New Years,” on-off couple romantic saga that played Venice in 2024 alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s Cate Blanchett starrer “Disclaimer” for Apple TV+, and Thomas Vinterberg’s big StudioCanal play “Families Like Ours.
France’s Filmo, Media4Fun and South Korea’s LG Plus have bought “The Nameless,” a portrait of evil family horror series from Filmax (“[REC]”), Pau Freixas (“The Red Band Society,” “You Shall Not Lie”) and Pol Cortecans (“You Shall Not Lie”),
A Drill-Down on More Deals:
*Cinobo Greece has picked up two seasons of “Bellas Artes” plus “A 100-Million Reward.”
*Filmo has also licensed “La vida breve.”
*Flow, the big Argentine streaming service covering Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, has become one of the first operators to buy “Many People Have to Die,” as well as “The Center,” “La Caza. Irati” and doc “Bisbal.”
*”Riot Police” also sold to Media4Fun.
*Italy’s MyMovieOne has acquired global electricity power outage anthology “OffWorld,” including episodes by Sorogoyen, Rodríguez, Isaki la Cuesta, Isa Campo and Rail Arévalo.
*Poland’s TVP has taken “La Canción,” from “Hierro” and “Rapa” creators Pepe Coira and Fran Araujo, placing Spain’s stunning 1968 Eurovision win in Spain’s dawn-of-democracy later liberty. Further acquisitions take in Costa del Sol mob lawyer comedy “Marbella,” crime investigation thriller “La Caza.Irati,” from Banijay’s DLO Producciones and two seasons of Canary Islands-set murder mystery “Hierro.”
*South Korea’s LG, a streaming service, has licensed “El centro,” “La Caza. Irati,” two ‘Hierro’ seasons, “El dentista’,” and “La vida breve.”
