“4x4”, a THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and Televisión Abierta co-production will premiere in Spain at the 52nd International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, being held in Sitges from October 3rd to 13th. The film is set to compete in the Òrbita section, one of the most important sections in the contest, which features previously unreleased fantasy-themed films in Spain including thrillers, action, adventure and dark comedy titles.

The media presentation of “4x4” featured Mariano Cohn, director and screenwriter together with Gastón Duprat, as well as Peter Lanzani, one of the leading cast members and Javier Méndez, Director of Content at THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO.

According to Mariano Cohn, the film addresses a major moral dilemma, a topic considered taboo in his native Argentina. “Here in Argentina we have an ongoing debate about fear, insecurity and violence,” explained Cohn. For him, the topic chosen was not by chance, but rather something very present in society. "This is such a naturalized issue that we found it difficult to distance ourselves enough from it in order to address it," he said.

Peter Lanzani, who plays the lead role, discussed his character, a young man who breaks into a “4x4” intent on stealing it, but instead becomes trapped: “I start off playing the thief and I end an emotional wreck. He’s a character that everyone can identify with. Filming was a really intense experience. ”

Javier Méndez said, “After watching The Distinguished Citizen”, here at THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO we instantly fell in love with Mariano and Gastón’s work, two renowned figures of international cinema. We’re delighted to have been able to present our second collaboration with them here at Sitges, and we have every intention of continuing to work together. It was a real pleasure to bring ‘4x4’ to such a prestigious festival as the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival”.

“4x4” is a haunting thriller with a cast that includes Dady Brieva, Noelia Castaño and sees a return of veteran Argentine actor Luis Brandoni, who starred in “My Masterpiece”, also co-produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and which received a magnificent reception at the Venice Festival winning the Seminci’s Public Award.

The new co-production from THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO opens in Spain on the heels of its successful release in Argentina, where it premiered last April to excellent box office success, becoming the highest grossing Argentine movie of the year. Recently, “4x4” also won the Oro and Best Screenplay (Cohn y Duprat) awards at the Termas de Río Hondo (Argentina), National Cinema Festival. The film is distributed internationally by Latido Films.

Plot

“4x4” is a thriller with a disturbing intro. A luxurious SUV is parked in a neighborhood like so many others in Buenos Aires. A young man breaks into the car with the intention of stealing it. However, when he tries to leave, he can't. Doors and windows refuse to open and the 4x4 becomes an armored bunker. The situation is desperate: He’s locked inside a vehicle someone is controlling from the outside and they seem to have a plan.

Javier Cámara returns to his political career once again in the guise of the character Juan Carrasco. Shooting of “Vamos Juan” is set to begin this week in Logroño on the sequel to “Vote Juan”, an original TNT series produced by 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) and WarnerMedia.

In has been two years since Minister for Agriculture Juan Carrasco reached the highest echelons of power. Now, far from political life, he leads a simple existence working as a Biology teacher at a high school in the city of Logroño. However, neither his political ambition nor his public service calling have been stifled. Mindful of how much he still has to offer, Juan Carrasco decides to take a step forward, muster his trusted troops, return to Madrid and start a new party.

“Vamos Juan” features the same core cast members as “Vote Juan”, led by Javier Cámara as Juan Carrasco. Joining Juan once again will be María Pujalte, as Macarena, his inseparable Director of communications during his tenure as Minister; Adam Jezierski, his personal assistant; Pedro Ángel Roca, the Minister’s former driver; Joaquín Climent, in the role of the implacable Vallejo, and Cristóbal Suárez as the charismatic Recalde. Once again, Carrasco's family circle plays a fundamental role in the adventure with Yaël Belicha as his wife and Esty Quesada (Soy una pringada) as his daughter, a part which reaches a new dimension, up and beyond that of merely the family environment, since, convinced of the her professional potential, Juan Carrasco decides to bestow on her a position of responsibility by appointing her to the role of the party’s Community Manager.

Throughout the seven episodes, “Vamos Juan” will also feature the collaboration of actors including Anna Castillo (“The Olive Tree”), Jesús Vidal (“Champions”), José Manuel Cervino (“13 Roses”) and Alberto San Juan (“Sidetracked”).

Created by Diego San José, the series screenwriter and showrunner, who will be joined in the writers room by Juan Cavestany, Víctor García León, Daniel Castro and Pablo Remón. Vamos Juan will be directed by Víctor García León and the project has enlisted Borja Cobeaga this season as director of three episodes.

“’Vamos Juan’ is not merely the sequel to “Vote Juan”. We wanted it to work as a stand-alone project,” says Diego San José. “We thought it was impossible for Juan Carrasco to make things worse as a politician, but we were wrong; he’s now setting up his own party. And we’re going to accompany him on this new endeavor, companions on a journey that will reveal to us everything dominating politics here in Spain but which we never actually get to see; he’ll have to seduce the IBEX 35 stock market, win over the Church, sign up a victim to leverage their suffering, and convince a celebrity to take on a ministerial role... All this to achieve the highest of all his aspirations; to travel to Istanbul for hair transplant treatment”.

“Vote Juan” was a great success among audiences on TNT. With more than a million viewers for both linear and non-linear broadcasts, the series pilot was one of this year's most successful premieres on pay-TV.

"The success of ‘Vote Juan’ has enabled us to consolidate the idea that original productions must be a pivotal element in our strategy moving forward", said Guillermo Farré, Director of Content at TNT. “We wish to continue banking on original and bold proposals. In this sense, ‘Vamos Juan’, hand in hand with a creative team currently enjoying a ‘state of grace’ and our collaboration with production house 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO), we’re going one step beyond ‘Vote Juan’. In addition, this same spirit will also be present in other series we’re already working on at TNT, such as Road Trip, among other projects currently under development. ”

Alejandro Florez, Director General of 100 Balas (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) commented, “The continuity of any series is a reflection of the success of the story it narrates. In addition to its popularity among audiences, we are grateful for the trust deposited in us by TNT since its inception, embodied in this second season. This project wouldn’t have been possible without their support and the support we enjoy as part of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, a company whose strength makes it possible to invest in this type of project and assures our production company has become a key player in the development of drama content in Spain, successful productions with unquestionable national and international projection".

Filming of “Vamos Juan” gets underway this week and will run throughout the fall on location in Logroño and Madrid. The series premiere on TNT is scheduled for the first half of 2020.

UBEAT, the MEDIAPRO e-sports channels with more than 3,000 hours of both national and international competition, information, latest news, entertainment and exclusive e-sports content production is now available on Movistar, which widens its basic content package for all its clients. From October all Movistar clients will be able to see the HD channel specialized in e-sports, via dial 58, UBEAT, the bench-mark for digital-game fans in Spain.

UBEAT includes exclusive interviews, video-game analysis and content of such popular games as League of Legends, Clash Royale, Fortnite, FIFA and Call of Duty. In addition, the channel also covers a host of other competitions and LVP events, as well as the biggest international events with the very best commentary and analysis in Spanish from bench-mark e-sports pundits.

On UBEAT the Movistar viewers will also be able to see other in-house productions such as “Hoy no se sale”, the late-night show presented by Ibai Llanos and Kapo 013 on Tuesdays at 22.00, which is set to feature guests from the worlds culture, music, TV, the theatre, sports, influencers, as well as e-sports, with fun interviews and surprising challenges.

One of the other big events of the new season on UBEAT is “Master Caster”, where 20 contestants put their talent to the test every Monday at 22.00 before a jury made up of some of the country’s best talent including Ulises, Kraniel and Kamikaze, in order to be the next big e-sports caster.

In addition, on UBEAT the fans of e-sports can also follow all the latest news from Monday to Friday at 15.00 from the sector and in eNEWS.

UBEAT is also set to offer the complete coverage of the League of Legends World Championships, one of the very best e-sports competitions. The channel will provide viewers with comprehensive coverage of the competition from October 2nd to November 10th with the opening phase and the group phase in Berlin, the quarter-finals and the semis from Madrid and the grand finale from Paris. In addition, the platform will also include in its program schedule special reports from the World Championships with expert analysis from stand-out pundits.

The MEDIAPRO Group has recently taken part in the ESPORTS BAR event in Miami, the number-one business event for the growing market around eSports. The event provided an excellent platform for the company to outline its innovation strategy and in particular the areas of Gaming and eSports, with successful projects such as the Professional Video-game League (LVP) and UBEAT, as well as its growth strategy in Latin America.

The director of Innovation at the MEDIAPRO Group, María Carmen Fernández, spoke at one of the main conferences at the event. In her ‘keynote’ talk, titled ‘New audiences, new platforms, new entertainment, Fernández highlighted the company’s strategy of new content. “Entertainment is changing. Technology is having a huge impact on how we produce and how we consume content”, added Fernández, who went on to comment: “We have to know not only what content our users are consuming but also go beyond that analyzing the data to keep one step ahead of the audience to discover the content of the future”.

The objective of the Grupo is to offer a range of products right across the content spectrum and as a consequence trying to create a “business eco-system” who covered a whole host of innovative sectors: LVP (eSports competitions), UBEAT (OTT and eSports channel), Visyon (content and production services in virtual reality, enhanced and mixed reality contexts), The Breach Studios (a video-game developer)... with leaving aside trends such as artificial intelligence, smart cities and 5G.

Marta Ruiz, the boss at UBEAT, took part in a round-table debate at the congress where she was able to outline the business model of the platform, highlighting the creation of in-house content and defending the right of eSports fans to consume content both via mobile devices but also via traditional TV platforms. “The need to develop profiles on social media which co-exist with transmedia content to attract users to UBEAT allowing them to discover our original eSports productions”, was also an important point highlighted in her talk.

The director general of LPV, Jordi Soler, took part in a round-table discussion with other sector professionals which highlighted the growth of LVP in Latin America with its physical presence in Columbia, Mexico and Argentina, and where it manages eSports competitions in Chile and Peru. In all these countries it is responsible for the national League of Legends competitions, as well as the mobile telephone games Free Fire. In addition, it has just launched the Player One project, a project aimed at amateur competitions, alongside its partner Globo in Brazil.

The ESPORTS BAR event in Miami is the leading business opportunity in the sector. A three-day event where industry leaders analyze the present and future of the sector also featuring conferences, master-classes, as well as high-level business meetings. It is expected at this year’s edition to beat last year’s attendance numbers which saw more than 500 professionals from 40 different countries attend with 2,400 business meetings taking place.

THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO has announced that filming of “Los Internacionales” is to begin in Argentina. This is the first drama series to be set in the period of Argentina’s political and economic crisis of 2001 and is a co-production with Viacom International Studios (VIS), Telecom and Olympusat. The series is due to be released in 2020 on the Telefe channel, as well as Telecom’s content multiplatform and video-on-demand service, Flow.

The production is another addition to the international projects THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO is currently developing which include the thriller The Head, series created by brothers David and Álex Pastor, directed by Jorge Dorado which has recently wrapped up filming in Iceland; The Paradise, a co-production with Finish network YLE, shot on location in Finland and Spain’s Costa del Sol, featuring Fran Perea; The New Pope, series by Paolo Sorrentino which was recently presented at the Venice Film Festival; as well as other projects developed in Latin America apart from “Los Internacionales” including “Las Bravas F.C.”, in co-production with Turner Broadcasting System Latin America; N00bees, already in its second season in association with Viacom International Studios and Pequeña Victoria, the comedy created by Erika Halvorsen and Daniel Burman, also a co-production between Viacom International Studios and Oficina Burman, a company of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, and which became the most successful new release on Telefe this year.

Based on the novel La conexión Bogotá by journalist Nahuel Gallota, “Los Internacionales” narrates the story of a renowned gang of Colombian thieves who travel to Argentina in the midst of the economic crisis, known popularly as the ‘Corralito’, to take advantage of the pillaging and social breakdown in which the country was engulfed. In 2001, many Argentinians were forced to close their bank accounts and withdraw all savings under the looming threat sparked by the profound economic and political crisis which hurled the country into chaos. “Los Internacionales” exploited the situation to burgle private homes and make off with a significant haul including cash and jewelry soon to become the stuff of popular legend.

Argentinian actress Cecilia Roth (“All About My Mother”, “Martin H”, “Historia de un Clan”, “El Ángel”, “Pain and Glory”) and Colombian actor Juan Pablo Shuk (“The Boat”, “The Ministry of Time”, “Narcos”) lead the cast for the series, in the respective roles of District Attorney Marta Costas and Fausto, one of the members of “Los Internacionales” gang. Cast members also include Rafa Ferro, Boy Olmi, Carlos Santamaria, Gustavo Garzon Rami Herrera, Sebastián Osorio, Camilo Amores, Christian Vega, Laura Perico and Susana Varela.

Filming of “Los Internacionales” will get underway in Bogotá and continue until mid-December on location in Buenos Aires. The series is sponsored by the INCAA (National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts).

PHOTO: Cecilia Roth

Video-game competitions were back center-stage at the Madrid Games Week 2019 organized by LVP (MEDIAPRO Group), the Spanish-speaking world’s largest e-sports organization.

The event in the Spanish capital played host to the grand final of the CS:GO Cup and the final phase of the Clash Royale Cup, as well as the first live Teamfight Tactics games, the new League of Legends format that Riot Games launched just a few months ago. In total, the three LVP broadcasts saw more than 210,000 viewers on Twitch.

On Saturday, in the Orange Stadium which was full to the brim and some (800 spectators), Movistar Riders were turned over and were forced to hand over their trophy to the Team Heretics in the CS:GO Cup final. The blue knights, winners of last year’s edition and also the Superliga Orange, won the first map led by the impressive Alejandro “Alex” Masanet. Team Heretics, with four French players and a Belgian in their team, came fighting back in the second map and ran out winners to the delight of the crowd in the third and final map.

In the thrilling final map, the final Team Heretics struck first with Movistar Riders coming back only to lose it at the death. Aitor “Soker” Fernández and company had their finger-tips on the Cup with the scoreboard 9-14 in their favor but an excellent run from the Heretics led by the Frenchman Bryan “Maka” Canda saw them run out 16-14 winners in a packed Orange Stadium saw them lift their first ever CS:GO trophy.

The final at the Madrid Games Week 2019 brought to an en dan excellent CS:GO Cup which was played over ten match-days and saw more than 720,000 viewers on Twitch.

A day after Team Heretics won the CS:GO Cup, at the same venue, the Orange Stadium, QLASH was the team picking up the second ever Clash Royale Cup. The semi-finals played out as expected with the two Superliga Orange teams swatting aside the two amateur teams from the ArenaGG, Team Samurai EU and Team ANAE, and which had made waves by reaching the Madrid Games Week 2019 final stages.

In the title-winning match, the two teams traded blows in the early stages before Alejandro “Regue” Regueira and company stepped up the pace and blew away the S2V boys. In the end they ran out 3-1 winners and confirmed the pre-finals predictions that QLASH is one of the best Clash Royale teams in the country. 

Madrid Games Week 2019 brought to a close the second edition of the Clash Royale Cup with more than 500,000 viewers on Twitch over the eight match-days. 

The LVP at Madrid Games Week 2019 kicked off on Friday with live TFT tournament, the new League of Legends format. The crowds at the Orange Stadium loved the new, fun TacticsGG mode: with four influencers up against four amateurs who had made it to the finals over five qualifying rounds with a prize-fund of 2,500€ at stake. TacticsGG signed off with record registrations at ArenaGG, the LVP competition platform, which saw more than 3,000 players take part.