The MEDIAPRO Group and David Simon, the creator of the successful series “The Wire”, have joined forces to develop an ambitious project called “A Dry Run”. The production will tell the story of several members of the Abraham Lincoln battalion who arrive in Spain from the USA to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War. The format for the mini-series is made up of 6 episodes and the script is written by George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane, both “The Wire” script-writers. The project will be film mostly in English and is currently in the development phase and looking for potential co-producers.
“A Dry Run” will be based on the stories of the Abraham Lincoln and George Washington battalions, which were part of the International Brigades that fought in the Spanish Civil War from their arrival in 1937 and their participation in the Battle of Jarama, until their departure in 1939.
According to David Simon, in his interview in Variety, the series offers a “compelling and tragic narrative” and adds that the “Spanish struggle against fascism and the misuse of capitalism as a bulwark to totalitarianism” represent “the preeminent political narrative of the 20th century and of our time still.” Simon also comments in the article that realism and reflecting the end of the war in 1939 that “was no happy ending”, in his words “when the Spanish Republic was threatened, capitalism chose tyranny”.
For Jaume Roures, a founding partner of the MEDIAPRO Group “A Dry Run” is set to be one of the big projects in the coming months. Not just for the story itself but also what it means for us to work with David Simon, one of the best script-writers of our times”.
About MEDIAPRO
The MEDIAPRO Group is a leading multimedia content producer and is major player in the integration of multimedia content, production and distribution with 46 international offices around the world. The Grupo has produced a host of block-buster series and audience leaders in Spain with international impact such as “Vis a Vis” which is about to debut its third season on FOX, as well as international film productions with directors such as Woody Allen, Fernando León de Aranoa, Isabel Coixet, Oliver Stone and Roman Polanski. MEDIAPRO also produces content in the USA, Portugal, Argentina and the Middle East. Recent productions include “El fútbol no es así” with DIRECTV, “The Paradise” with YLE and “The Young Pope”, by Paolo Sorrentino starring Jude Law and Diane Keaton, a successful fiction series broadcast across Europe and which is shortly set to premiere its second season on HBO.
“Lifeline”, an Atresmedia Television’s series, continues its international run with an important achievement. On April 15, this thriller produced by Globomedia (Grupo MEDIAPRO) for Antena 3 will receive a Walter Presents premiere on the British free-to-air Channel 4, famous around the world for its quality and innovation. “Lifeline” will be the second Spanish show to be broadcast on this channel in the UK. Its predecessor “Locked Up” is another Atresmedia Television’s series produced by Globomedia.
Channel 4 will premiere the first episode of the first season in its dedicated Walter Presents Sunday night 10pm slot and will shortly afterwards the complete series will be available on Channel 4’s AVOD service. The agreement was signed by Global Series and Imagina International Sales, Grupo MEDIAPRO’s international rights agency.
“After the huge success of Locked Up we are delighted to welcome another blockbuster Spanish series from Atresmedia – it is just as slick, compulsive and addictive as its predecessor” says Walter Iuzzolino, Curator of Walter Presents.
“Lifeline” is an Atresmedia show, produced by Globomedia (Grupo MEDIAPRO). Directed by Emilio Aragón and based on an original idea by Aragón together with Carmen O. Carbonero and Francisco Roncal, the show’s stunning cast is led by Leonor Watling, Pablo Derqui, Ingrid Rubio and Juan Diego Botto. The Spanish premiere dominated the ratings with a noteworthy 17.1% and reaching 3 million viewers.
The MEDIAPRO Group and Electric GT Holding have reached an agreement to carry out the production of the TV signal of the entirely electric production car races Electric Production Car Series (EPCS). MEDIAPRO will be responsible for the audiovisual production of all the events broadcasting the signal around the world. The Electric Production Car Series will bring together 20 drivers who will compete over 8 races in the electric car series driving the Tesla P100D EPCS, with the races taking place in Europe, the USA and Asia.
MEDIAPRO, with its proven track record in premiere sporting event production, will be in charge of the audiovisual production and signal distribution of all the Electric GT races. The Group will use HD 1080 technology for the production and the TV signal of the EPCS. MEDIAPRO, with more than 60 OB vans around the world, is the leader in the provision of technical production services and satellite broadcasting and carries out more than 3,500 events productions a year. Its track record includes big sporting events such as F1, the UEFA Champions League, 13 national football leagues around the world and FIFA, UEFA, FIBA, OBS, CAF, AFC competitions among others.
Mark Gemmell: “We’re delighted to be able to welcome MEDIAPRO into the Age Of Light family and look forward to leveraging their experience and creativity to develop the championships even further The Electric Production Car Series sets out to take the future of innovation and technology to the race track, but especially to fans around the world and our partnership with MEDIAPRO is a key factor in our relationship with the fans who are anxious to experience this new International Race Series”. “MEDIAPRO will help us reach our widest possible TV audience in the most professional way. For online viewers, we will also be broadcasting all the content via social media and all the biggest content broadcast sites so fans can have multi-channel access both on and off the race-track”.
For MEDIAPRO: “We’re delighted to add this new project to our portfolio. Production of the new competition represents a significant challenge for the Group but we take pride in the fact that companies such as Electric GT Holdings wish to partner with MEDIAPRO to launch such an ambitious project. We’re looking forward to helping the Electric Production Car Series become a stand-out race series”.
The third season of "Vis a Vis", produced by Globomedia (MEDIAPRO Group and FOX Networks Group (FNG) Spain, is set to be premiered at the Malaga Festival with the screening of its first episode on Sunday the 15th April at 17.45, at the Cervantes Theatre with an assortment of the series’ stars in attendance, including Najwa Nimri, Berta Vázquez, Itziar Castro and Maggie Civantos.
In addition to the screening, the actresses will also be attending a press conference on Sunday the 15th along with Javier Pons, Director General of Globomedia, Daniel Pérez, Director General of FOX Networks Group Spain and Iván Escobar, the series’ executive producer and script-writer.
Malaga is the chosen launch location for the promotion of the much-awaited third season of the series, which is set to exclusively premiere on FOX on the 23rd April at 22.20 and marks FOX Networks Group Spain’s first in-house fiction series production.
Bit by bit some of this year’s entries for the upcoming edition of DocsBarcelona 2018, which is set to take place from the 16th to the 27th May, are being announced, with many of them being world premieres. One of which will be “Sinfonía”, produced by MEDIAPRO and directed by Gilbert Arroyo and Andrés Locatelli, is a film about the “Sinfonía por el Perú” project, which was launched back in 2011 by the famous opera singer Juan Diego Flórez with the goal of helping young people in risk of marginalisation. “Sinfonía” is just one of the many films set to make their world premiere at DocsBarcelona 2018, along with documentaries such as the hard-hitting “Petitet” and “Eugenio”.
The documentary by Gilbert Arroyo and Andrés Locatelli is the latest MEDIAPRO production, which highlights the importance of music as a shelter, as artistic expression and a way of life. “Sinfonía” follows Alondra, Diego and Imanol, three young Peruvians living on the Edge of society, over the course of three years and how their Destiny changes radically when music and the tenor Juan Diego Flórez cross their paths. Flórez, one of modern opera’s greatest talents, got his chance to study singing thanks to the generosity of dozens of donors and conscious of the transformative power of music, he came up with the “Sinfonía por el Perú” project. Via the project viewers discover the character and bravery of the three young boys as they start to believe in themselves and dream of a better future for themselves and their families.
“Sinfonía” is the first joint project involving Andrés Locatelli and Gilbert Arroyo. Arroyo has written and directed projects such as “Alas sobre el Polo”, “Voces de una generació”, “Filosofia en la prisión” (Premi DocEspaña, SEMINCI 2015). He has also produced series such as “Animalia” (Telemadrid) and “Pelopicopata” (Antena 3) as well as directing programmes such as “El Especialista” (Cuatro), “Terapia de pareja” (laSexta) and “Con mis ojos” (TVE, Zapping Award 2015), among others.
Andrés Locatelli is the director and co-script-writer of the short-film “Supercomputing and eScience”, an award winner at the Ronda International Scientific Cinema Festival as well as winning the award for Best Short Documentary at the Olomouc Film Festival 2015 and Best Documentary at the International Short Documentary Festival in Torrelavega. He also produces content for advertising and audiovisual exhibits for museums.
The MEDIAPRO Group is a leader in the production of multimedia content and as well as providing content integration, production and distribution services across 46 offices around the world. With a proven track record in non-fiction film production with highlights including “Política, manual de instrucciones” by Fernando León de Aranoa, “Spain in a day” by Isabel Coixet, “The challenge: Defending Julian Assange”, “The Light-bulb conspiracy” by Cosima Dannoritzer and the recent “1-O”, “Las cloacas de Interior” (“The State's Secret Cesspit”), and “Grietas” produced by Amnesty International to celebrate its 40th anniversary in Spain. In fiction, MEDIAPRO has worked with directors such as Woody Allen, Fernando León de Aranoa, Javier Fesser, Isabel Coixet, Manuel Huerga, Oliver Stone and Roman Polanski.
The MEDIAPRO Group is currently working on “Six Dreams” and “All or nothing: Manchester City” for Amazon, “El futbol no es así” for DirecTV, the third season of “Vis a vis” for FOX, “N00Bees” for Nickelodeon Latin America and the second season of “The Young Pope” for HBO.
Monday the 10th April saw the successful start of the McDonald’s Virtual LaLiga eSports project, organised by the Video-games Professional League and LaLiga. The LVP studios in the MEDIAPRO building in Barcelona played host to the start of the best national FIFA tournament so far.
The LVP broadcast via the Twitch streaming platform notched up more than 170,000 unique viewers, making it one of the most watched LVP programmes so far in 2018. The user-friendly format, the high-level matches and the presence of the influencer DjMaRiio all helped to make it an excellent return for FIFA to the LVP platform.
Via its own channels, LaLiga managed to reach close to 1,200,000 people, with more than half a million minutes viewed in total. Although most of the viewers were located in Spain, the tournament was also followed extensively in a host of South American countries such as Peru, Columbia and Mexico.
The first day’s play of the McDonald’s Virtual LaLiga eSports, which saw four quarter-final match-ups, was a special day for the unification of both the PS4 and Xbox One platforms).
The first four qualifiers for the quarter-finals have been decided with a few games still to be played. Fernando “Ferperry” Martínez and Jesús “Xexuatm” Garnacho, on PS4, and Sergio “Espi” Espier and Ricardo “Kingricar4” García, on Xbox, are the first names on the board for the final stages of the tournament. In addition, two more names are set to be announced in the coming days going straight into this phase of the competition via the McDonald’s Golden Pass.
