Barcelona, 19 March, 2019. With the launch of THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, the MEDIAPRO Group is going one step further in bolstering its international expansion, clearly and firmly investing in content. The Group is evolving in its role as the benchmark content producer in Spain, growing into an active protagonist on the international stage by driving productions designed for the global market.
Headquartered in Barcelona, THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO has 10 creative offices around the world. With 34 series underway in 2019 and a global investment of 200M for producing series, films, shows, short formats and documentaries in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain, Finland, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, the United States and the Middle East.
THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO represents the Group's prestigious track record, its well-established current situation and unbeatable future expectations on an expanding content market.
After over 20 years producing content and making decisive contributions to Spanish fiction's international success, the MEDIAPRO Group is now acting as representative and driving force behind projects designed for all markets and operators. THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO'S structure encompasses the entire chain of value, including development, creation, production, audiovisual services, artistic direction and distribution. THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO is also involved in funding new projects. This entails a paradigm shift for traditional production models in Spain, by creating a global brand that will enable the Group to create large franchises, fund projects and control distribution and intellectual property rights in association with large international partners. THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO shares productions with HBO, Viacom, Netflix, Amazon, FOX, Turner, Disney, Yle, Sony, Vice, DirecTV, Hulu, TF1, Televisa, Univisión, Movistar, TVE, A3Media, Mediaset España and Globo Internacional. Its creative teams are working on developing 200 projects in Spain, the United States, Great Britain, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Portugal and the Middle East. THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO also produces over 5,000 hours of entertainment programs, with original formats like "El intermedio", "Zapeando" and "El conquistador del fin del mundo" or worldwide franchises like "Ninja Warriors".
According to Jaume Roures, managing partner of Mediapro Group, "the time has come to move beyond our role as a production company and to become a Studio. For 25 years, we have produced hundreds of great quality projects all around the world, with the ability to develop global content, all the way from the concept to broadcasting, including executive production and artistic direction. Because of this, we feel we are ready to go one step further and create unique content."
In the words of Tatxo Benet, Group managing partner, "we want to be a global company, a key player in the international content industry, strengthening our presence around the world as a part of our growth. We are very excited about this step, which will enable us to increase our audience and production capacity."
Javier Méndez Zori, Javier Pons and Laura Fernández Espeso will oversee the Studio's productions in all territories to push creation, production, funding and content distribution, also reinforcing presence in the USA through the New York office that was opened three years ago.
With over 6,700 professionals and 58 offices on 4 continents, the MEDIAPRO Group has collaborated with directors such as Oliver Stone ("Comandante"), Paolo Sorrentino ("The Young Pope"), Fernando León de Aranoa ("Los lunes al sol", "Un día perfecto" AKA "A Perfect Day)"), Isabel Coixet ("La vida secreta de las palabras", "Nadie quiere la noche" AKA "Nobody Wants the Night"), Roman Polanski ("Carnage"), Woody Allen ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona", "Midnight in Paris"), and promoted projects such as "Tres metros sobre el cielo", "Águila Roja", " Vis a Vis", "Six Dreams" and "Todo por el juego". Currently, those collaborating in its creative projects would include prestigious figures such as David Simon (creator of "The Wire"), Àlex and David Pastor, Javier Olivares, Ran Tellem, Daniel Burman, Diego San José, Fernando González Molina, Iván Escobar and more.
At this time, MEDIAPRO has 27 entertainment shows being broadcast, spanning all genres, from comedy, news and documentary to contest shows. It was also in charge of the first European Netflix and Amazon productions, "Los reyes de la comedia," "Six Dreams" and "All or nothing: Manchester City".
Movistar+ and production company Globomedia (MEDIAPRO Group) have begun production on the series "Paraíso". An ambitious fiction that combines youth drama, science fiction and mystery.
"Paraíso" will consist of 8 fifty-minute episodes scheduled to premiere on Movistar+ in 2020. It is currently in the pre-production phase, and the casting call and location sourcing processes are both already underway.
Created by Fernando González Molina ("Three Steps Above Heaven", "I Want You", "Palm Trees in the Snow"), Ruth García ("El Incidente", "The Protected", "The Boarding School", "Paco's Men") and David Oliva ("El Incidente", "The Protected", "Paco's Men", "Los Serrano"), the series will be directed by Fernando González Molina, director of some of the highest grossing box-office films in Spanish cinema history as well as timeless TV fiction classics such as "The Boat", "Paco's Men" and "Luna".
"Paraíso comes from our dream to tell a fantasy tale associated with our teenage idols; Spielberg's cinema, the "V" series, but also "Verano Azul" and "Compañeros", and to connect them with the stories I've loved portraying in cinema: epic, emotional stories that, above all, are designed to be enjoyed by cinemagoers. PARAISO is a journey to the entertaining cinema we were passionate about and which inspired us to devote our lives to this, but also a story about loss and the difficulty of being a teenager when you are different", said Fernando González Molina.
Plot
Levante, 1992, the summer is coming to an end in a coastal town when three 15-year-old girls, Sandra, Eva and Malena, disappear without a trace from a nightclub. When the police investigation appears to be taking the wrong direction, Javi, Sandra's younger brother, takes things into his own hands, along with Quino and Álvaro, his best friends, and Zeta, the class bully. Together they discover the girls are being held by something not of this world.
Following on from "My Masterpiece", MEDIAPRO has co-produced the latest film from the creative team of Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat: "4x4", which is set to premiere in Argentina on the 4th of the 4th, to coincide with film's title. This time around, Cohn takes the director's role as well as writing the script along with Duprat. The thriller features Peter Lanzani, Dady Brieva, Noelia Castaño and the veteran Argentine actor Luis Brandoni, who is back working with the creative team after starring in "My Masterpiece".
"4x4", a MEDIAPRO Televisión Abierta co-production set to be distributed by Latido Films around the world, kicks off with a disturbing opening scene. A fancy 4x4 parked in a leafy neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. A young man tries to steal it but once inside, he can't get out. The doors won't open and the windows are not moving, the 4x4 is a bullet-proof bunker. The situation starts to get desperate and there's no way out. Somebody from the outside is controlling the car and appears to have a plan.
New film project with Cohn and Duprat
"4x4" will premiere in Argentine cinemas on the 4th April, to the back-drop of the huge success of the creators' previous film. "My Masterpiece", also co-produced by MEDIAPRO, earnt an excellent reception at the Venice Film Festival winning the audience award at the Seminci. In Argentina, it premiered in August 2018, hitting second spot at the box-office.
The Women's Football Clubs Association (ACFF) has recently accepted the proposal presented by MEDIAPRO for the acquisition of the broadcast rights for the Iberdrola League for the next three seasons. The group has renewed its investment in women's football, a journey which began in 2013 bringing the sport to the TV screen.
MEDIAPRO has been one of the big backers of women's football in Spain and the triumphs on the pitch has helped Spanish women's football along with the greater awareness through TV exposure as well as the professionalisation of the competition has seen an unprecedented growth in the number of women and girls taking part in the game with more than 42,000 official members of the women's football federation in the 2017/2018 season, 12,000 more than three years ago.
The partnership strengthens the effort of MEDIAPRO to make women's football an integral part of TV sports a fact which has helped to grow the following of the sport with clubs investing in their women's football teams with some high-profile matches taking place in the men's stadium with excellent attendance figures. The signing-up of a sponsor for the competition finding of a sponsor coinciding with the free-to-air broadcasts on GOL of two of the games each match-day.
Football is the most watched and followed women's sport on TV with an audience growth of 39% from the 2016/2017 to the 2017/2018 season. Last season saw an average audience of 112,000 viewers, a 1% share and an accumulated audience of 7 million viewers over the season.
On Friday March 15 at 23:00, Thais Villas, Susi Caramelo, Nerea Pérez de las Heras, Juan Carlos Librado 'Nene', Eva Soriano, Adriana Torrebejano, Anabel Mua, Victoria Martín and Silvia Sparks will bring safe, subtle humour to Friday night TV screens. A comedy show made by women. Created, written, directed and presented exclusively by women.
Las que faltaban is a comedy show that comes with its own audience, monologues, interviews, collaborators, musical performances
a regular late night in all its glory. But what's not at all standard is that, and this changes everything, it's made and directed entirely by women.
In front of the cameras, the extremely talented Thais Villas, Susi Caramelo, Nerea Pérez de las Heras, Juan Carlos Librado 'Nene', Eva Soriano, Adriana Torrebejano, Anabel Mua, Victoria Martín and Silvia Sparks. And behind the cameras, more women, directors, writers, editors and producers, etc. Because, as Tina Fey, the first ever female head writer on Saturday Night Live pointed out, if female talent is to blossom and emerge, then it's fundamental that women stop being the minority. In order for there to be writers with excellent ideas as well as female bosses who contribute those excellent ideas to the general script, there have to be women creators, but also women directors who can see the talent from a new perspective; a woman's perspective.
Las que faltaban conveys to TV screens what's happening on the streets, in bars and on the Internet, where more and more women are expressing themselves and connecting using comedy. They'll be interviewing truly interesting folk and dealing with current and/or general interest affairs introduced by stand-up comedians, creators, illustrators and all the other witty minds who have things to say and share.
Each week, a female group of artists will provide the show's soundtrack playing their music live.
The programme will be recorded in real-time in front of an audience in Madrid's popular Uñas Chung Lee nightclub. As was the case with "La Resistencia" in the Arlequín theatre and "Ilustres Ignorantes" in the Nuevo Apolo, the show will delve into the city night to transmit the energy and magic of a late-night show.
"Las que faltaban" is a Movistar+ production in association with Globomedia (MEDIAPRO Group).
San José, screenwriter behind hit comedies such as the "Spanish Affair" and "Spanish Affair 2" saga; "Friend Zone" and "Lovestorming", had already worked with the company in the past on "Bomb Scared" (Netflix) and more recently on the political series with satirical overtones, "Vota Juan" (TNT).
In addition to his role in developing fiction content for cinema as well as for television, Diego San José has also worked as screenwriter on entertainment formats including "Vaya Semanita", "La Hora de José Mota", "¡Qué vida más triste!" and "El Intermedio", produced by Globomedia.
Javier Méndez, Global Content Director of MEDIAPRO, explained that "Diego's incorporation, right now the most important comedy creator on the audiovisual scene, strengthens our commitment to working with the best talent for developing quality content. Our previous experience working with Diego has been very positive and we are convinced that we will develop impressive projects".
For his part, San José highlighted, "I've produced two of my favourite works with MEDIAPRO, Bomb Scared and Vota Juan, and I don't think that's by chance, I think it has to do with the way we work together so I'm itching to get going and see what new projects can come out of this relationship."
This latest incorporation reinforces MEDIAPRO Group's intention to invest in working with the very best talent available. Diego San José joins an already impressive list of creators with whom the company joins forces in content creation, including Marc Vigil, Ran Tellem, Iván Escobar, Javier Olivares, Fernando González Molina and Daniel Burman, among others.
About the MEDIAPRO Group
Through its 56 offices located on 4 continents, the MEDIAPRO Group is a world leader in multimedia content creation, production and distribution. The Group's Content Division develops, creates, produces and distributes content of every genre and in every format for television, cinema and exhibitions. In TV fiction, the Group works in association with creative minds including Ran Tellem, David Simon, Paolo Sorrentino, Daniel Calparsoro, Daniel Écija, Javier Olivares, Fernando González Molina, Eduardo Sacheri, Michel Gaztambide, Àlex and David Pastor and Daniel Burman. The Group has recently produced content for HBO ("The Young Pope"), Netflix ("Edha", "Bomb Scared") and Amazon ("Six Dreams" and "All or Nothing: Manchester City"), DirectTV ("Side Games"), Fox ("Locked Up"), Turner ("Vota Juan"), Viacom ("N00Bees"), YLE ("The Paradise") and Disney ("Miracle Hunters") and has announced agreements with VICE Studios and Pol-ka. In cinema, MEDIAPRO produces content in Europe, the United States and Latin America working with directors such as Woody Allen, Fernando León Aranoa, Isabel Coixet, Patricio Guzmán, Manuel Huerga, Roman Polanski, Ernesto Daranas and Gaston Duprat, among others.
