John Turturro, Melissa Leo, “24” showrunner Evan Katz and Oscar winner Juan José Campanella will possible be joined by Tom Donahue, director of “Mafia Spies,” “The Flooring” showrunner Anthony Carbone and Matt and Tina Hastings (“The Handmaid’s Story,” “Fallen”) on the first English-language slate of The Mediapro Studio US & Canada.
Supplied at Mipcom at a Media Mastermind session on Wednesday by The Mediapro Studio’s CEO Laura Fernández Espeso, Juan “JC” Acosta, head of the Los Angeles-based The Mediapro Studio US & Canada, the slate represents a long-standing fundamental gameplan launched by Fernández Espeso in 2021.
The CEO’s intention is to drive into crucial film-TV market on this planet, combining top-tier U.S. showrunners and the financing muscle, manufacturing providers, in-house experience and co-production expertise and infrastructure of The Mediapro Studio, headquartered in Madrid nonetheless working manufacturing operations in a lot of markets in Europe and Latin America. That allows TMS to combine native expertise and world perspective to create widespread content material materials, she commented.
Fernández Espeso and Acosta have been flanked on stage by Pam Healey, who’s fundamental TMS’ price of unscripted content material materials, Ran Tellem, TMS head of worldwide content material materials progress and Katz and Campanella.
“The U.S. just isn’t just one different market. What’s created there has the potential to resonate globally, influencing cultures and tendencies worldwide…and there’s no method we’d miss the prospect to hitch that market as correctly,” Fernández Espeso instructed Choice.
“We’ve been engaged on this for the ultimate 10 years, and now it’s time to have a very good time the fruits of our exhausting work and to go extra,” she added.
First particulars on the slate:
“Is There No Place on Earth for Me?”
John Turturro is writing and set to direct and star throughout the film “Is There No Place on Earth for Me?” adapting Susan Sheehan’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize reportage a few family whose daughter battles schizophrenia. The film is completely packaged and just about in a position to go, talked about Acosta.
” Witness 36″
“24” showrunner Evan Katz will lead the sequence, created by The Mediapro Studio’s Daniel Burman and described by Acosta as a high-stakes “cat and mouse thriller with ‘Killing Eve’ vibes.” In it, a youthful girl who creates new identities at an extraterritorial witness security program meets a person at a bar one night whose personal story is exactly the similar as one in every of many identities she’s thought up. As a enterprise, “Witness 36” gained the coveted Sequence Mania Award at February’s Berlinale Co-Skilled Sequence.
“The Son of the Bride”
Oscar-winning director Juan José Campanella (“The Secret in Their Eyes”) is able to adapt as an English-language sequence his Academy Award-nominated movie “The Son of the Bride,” hailed by Choice in 2001 as “unflaggingly genial and universally humorous.” “A thought-making exploration of family and a reminder that all human beings are always coming of age,” talked about Acosta. The variation is being written by Campanella, who has directed episodes of iconic U.S. sequence resembling “Residence” and, most currently, “Regulation and Order: Specific Victims Unit.”
“Screaming Ball of Chaos”
The Mediapro Studio has optioned and is engaged on “Screaming Ball of Chaos,” the next novel from Juliet McDaniel, whose fiction e-book “Mr. and Mrs. American Pie” turned the Apple TV+ hit sequence “Palm Home Royale.” “Screaming Balls…” is described by Acosta as “an sudden Bonnie and Clyde with cults, male strippers and just a bit little little bit of Neil Diamond.” A pleasing, female-led comedy a few chaotic girl’s bank-robbing spree, it speaks to the tenor of The Mediapro Studio: “Large characters, iconic hooks, tales that may protect and proceed for lots of seasons.”
“I Love the Prime Minister”
Matt Hastings, a co-executive producer on “The Handmaid’s Story,” is connected to “I Love the Prime Minister,” from an genuine idea by Ran Tellem (“Homeland,” “The Head”). An spherical half-hour light romantic comedy, it prompts a worthwhile female lawyer who’s been very centered on her career and is now as a lot as develop to be prime minister and juggling the pressures of administration with stylish courting.
Ran Tellem, Pam Healey
“Catch Me If You Can”
“The Flooring” showrunner-executive producer Anthony Carbone is working with The Mediapro Studio to bundle a U.S. adaptation of one in every of many longest-running unscripted codecs in Spain, “Catch Me If You Can,” which has run to higher than 10,000 episodes.
Hollywood Homicide: Robert Blake
Tom Donahue, director of “Mafia Spies,” and his label CreativeChaos are teaming with The Mediapro Studio for its first true crime doc sequence in regards to the case of actor Robert Blake (“In Chilly Blood,” “Barretta”) case, accused of murdering his partner Bonny Lee Bakley. The story is now instructed by his son, Noah Blake.
“Mother Wolf”
Academy Award-winner Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”) is starring in “Mother Wolf,” directed by indie darling Suzi Yoonessi (“Dear Lemon Lima,” “Unlovable”), a “darkish, comedic fairy story,” talked about Acosta, throughout which Leo performs a retired teacher immediately tasked with caring for her grandchildren. She goes to principally do one thing for her family. Movie is now in publish, supported by The Mediapro Studio.
“Our train in Latin America and Europe is secure. These are key markets for us, along with Spain, in any case. We’ve earned the idea and respect of the world’s key customers,” talked about Fernández Espeso.
“And now we’ve got had invaluable help from our manufacturing companions, who’ve enriched our productions. We want to preserve this shut connection to experience, customers and companions the place we produce our content material materials on account of an infinite part of our worldwide enlargement depends upon native connections,” she added.
“The dedication, the plans, the workplaces and each factor means we’re in a position to lastly dedicate ourselves to creating and producing English Language content material materials as loads as now we’ve got in Spanish,” Fernández Espeso went on. “We’ve an in depth library of codecs, and now we’ve got a strong observe doc of creating content material materials that transcends borders, every geographically and thematically.”
“Our aim with our worldwide productions is delivering high-quality, delivering that in English and delivering with great experience,” added Acosta. “That’s why we’re doubling down on English.”
The productions will look to get primarily essentially the most out of the funding, capitalizing on The Mediapro Studio’s world infrastructure and native incentives, he added.
The slate announcement catches the U.S. TV scene at a particular crux. “For a number of years, we’d favored to supply throughout the U.S. and preserve it throughout the U.S. and dabble in native content material materials, native for native,” Acosta instructed Choice. “Now, nonetheless, given the realities of how the market has settled, how worth per episode is being thought of, now we’ve got a aggressive profit on account of we’re in a position to carry the experience, the creativity, the infrastructure, and have a distribution arm – your full bundle. I imagine that items you apart,” he added.
