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Su nueva película, ‘Playa de Lobos’, se proyectará fuera de concurso. © Festival de Málaga

El 28 Festival de Málaga, que se celebra del del 14 al 23 de marzo, concederá al intérprete argentino Guillermo Francella el Premio Retrospectiva, que reconoce su impresionante y amplia trayectoria en el cine hispanohablante.

Francella se suma así a una lista de ilustres galardonados con el Premio Retrospectiva, en la que figuran nombres como el cineasta argentino Marcelo Piñeyro, el director español Alberto Rodríguez o la actriz argentina Mercedes Morán.

El premio lo otorga la organización junto a Málaga Hoy, que ha entrevistado al actor, que ha expresado su emoción: «Esta distinción que me otorgó el Festival de Málaga de homenajearme con una retrospectiva de mi vida, de mi carrera, me hace muy feliz, y más de poder estar ahí. […] La magnitud del festival, que nunca he estado, pero sigo los movimientos de cada festival que se produce,...

Madrid-based Onza, one of Spain’s top indie production-distribution houses, has kicked off filming on Season 2 of hit gridlock comedy series “Traffic Jam” (“Atasco), which is set to premiere on Prime Video Spain.

It has also shared on-set photos in exclusivity with Variety.

Launched May 24 on Prime Video Spain, the first season of the series hit No. 1 on the platform the day after, with an audience warming to the unexpected, comical and engaging stories that unfold in a huge traffic jam on the outskirts of Madrid.

Written and directed by Rodrigo Sopeña, as the series’ Season 1, the six new episodes continue the producers’ bet on a renowned Spanish star cast, this time featuring Silvia Abril, Carlos Sobera (“Little Coincidences”), Adriana Torrebejano, Carlos Areces (“The Last Circus”), Luis Zahera and singer-actress Edurne.

Some actors from Season 1 will reprise their roles in Season 2, the producers said.

Season 1’s stellar cast featured prominent...

Prime Video has announced that the Spanish Original film Culpa Tuya (“Your Fault”) will be released exclusively worldwide on December 27. It follows Culpa Mía, which launched on Prime Video last year and achieved unprecedented success worldwide.

The film, based on the first book of the New York Times bestselling Culpable book trilogy written by Mercedes Ron, was among the top 10 most-watched titles in more than 190 countries, including the US, UK, Australia, India, Argentina, and France. The sequel, Culpa Tuya, will be available this Christmas exclusively on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Culpa Tuya brings back Nicole Wallace and Gabriel Guevara in the roles of Noah and Nick. Also continuing in their roles are Marta Hazas, Iván Sánchez, Victor Varona, and Eva Ruiz.

The new cast members include Goya Toledo as Anabel, Gabriela Andrada as Sofía, Álex Béjar as Briar, Javier Morgade as Michael, and Felipe Londoño as Luca.

Spanish super-indie production-sales companies are stepping back in time with vigor, building on opportunities opened up by streamers’ growing market flexibility to retain IP and sell territory-by-territory.

Prioritizing bottom lines over market share, global platforms are ever more splitting rights and investing less in single titles. As budgets reduce, projects’ producers are forced to court ever more partners.

That often means partnering on productions. “We accustomed customers to enjoying high-quality series with large budgets. In the new context, it is increasingly difficult to continue in this vein if you don’t partner,” says Onza’s Carlos Garde.

Aiding this, Spain’s TV drama sector is still living a Golden Age. “Spanish TV fiction presence is on the rise, both on platforms and on international pay TV and free-to-air channels,” argues Atresmedia’s José Antonio Salso, who is moving buzz title “Nights in Tefía” at MipTV.

“There’s a large demand for Spanish-language content,...

Spain’s Iván Sánchez, star of Telemundo’s Intl. Emmy-nominated “You Cannot Hide,” and up-and-coming Spanish actor José Pastor will portray Latin music icon Miguel Bosé in the upcoming biopic, “Bosé.”

One of the biggest original series on Paramount Plus’ international lineup, “Bosé” has gone into production, shooting in Spain.

The premium series is produced by powerhouse ViacomCBS International Studios (Vis) in collaboration with Shine Iberia (Banijay Iberia), Pepe Bastón’s Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock.

Variety has had exclusive access to a behind-the-scenes teaser clip in which the two actors practice the grave but sensual lilting baritone voice of Bosé’s singing “Como un Lobo,” a song in which Bosé imagines himself as a Russian Steppe wolf pursuing the object of his desire.

With a career on both sides of the Atlantic, Sánchez is an established star, a well-known face who broke out playing El Gallego in Telemundo’s...

Like sands through a flipped-over hourglass, Greg Vaughan is returning to Days of Our Lives.

The actor will reprise his role on the NBC soap this summer, a recently released promo revealed.

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In case it’s been a while since you, too, have been in Salem: Eric has been away from the action, doing missionary work in Africa. Left alone in Salem, his...

It’s seven years since then-Fox chief Kevin Reilly declared “Rip pilot season”.

Today, NBC chiefs Susan Rovner and Frances Berwick were the latest top broadcast executives to declare the traditional cycle dead with the network looking to replace it with a “52-week scheduling mindset”.

Rovner, who is Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, speaking at the unveiling of its fall schedule, said that the Covid-19 pandemic has ignited this change.

“The unique circumstances of this year have made us relook at how we approach the traditional broadcast pilot season and I really think it’s going to benefit all of us. Rather than competing each year with other networks for the best directors, best actors and best writing staff all in the same small window, we’re now going to be able to take the time to make the best show, period,” she said.

The former Warner Bros....

NBC has given out a pair of comedy pilot orders, including one starring music superstar Demi Lovato.

The Lovato project is titled “Hungry.” NBC had previously given the single-camera show a put pilot commitment back in January. In the show, friends who belong to a food issues group help each other as they look for love, success and the perfect thing in the fridge that’s going to make it all better.

Suzanne Martin is writing and executive producing, with Lovato executive producing in addition to starring. Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner of Hazy Mills will also executive produce along with Scooter Braun, Scott Manson, and James Shin of Sb Projects. Universal Television will produce.

Lovato got her start in acting in the Disney Channel original film “Camp Rock” and its sequels. She also appeared in multiple episodes of the “Will & Grace” revival as well as on shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,...

NBC’s pilot season has kicked in to gear with two more orders on the comedy side.

The network has handed pilot orders to Demi Lovato’s Hungry and romantic comedy Someone Out There, which was ordered to pilot last year but was rolled due to the pandemic.

Lovato is starring in and exec producing Hungry, a single-cam comedy that follows a group of friends who belong to a food issues group help each other as they look for love, success and the perfect thing in the fridge that’s going to make it all better.

It is written and exec produced by Will & Grace writer and Hot In Cleveland creator Suzanne Martin. It comes from Hazy Mills and Sb Projects in association with Universal Television. Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner & Scooter Braun, Scott Manson and James Shin exec produce.

Hungry’s pilot order comes as Lovato’s recent documentary series...

Not even remotely interested in seeing Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes or The Weeknd do their thing at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium?

We’ve got you. Instead of watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs go helmet-to-helmet for a shiny Vince Lombardi, head to these platforms and channels to get your Sunday evening fix of series and flicks.

All showtimes listed below are in Eastern Standard Time.

Streaming Alternatives Netflix

Shows: “Kid Cosmic,” “Firefly Lane,” “Hache” (Season 2), “Invisible City,” “The Sinner” (Season 3)

Films: “The Bank Job,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Zathura: A Space Adventure,” “Shutter Island,” “The Patriot,” “Little Big Women,” “Space Sweepers,” “Strip Down, Rise Up,” “The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity”

Amazon Prime

Shows: “Little Coincidences,” “What’s New, Scooby-Doo?,” “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men,” “The White Princess” (Season 1), “Billions” (Seasons 1-3), “Black in Latin America” (Season 1), “Finding Your Roots” (Season 1)

Films: “Kiki,” “Dazed and Confused,...

It still might be a little while before we’re able to go back to the movies again. Thankfully, with its list of new releases for February 2021, Amazon Prime is bringing the theater home. The movies are the real appeal this month.

Amazon’s offerings are highlighted by two original films of note. The first is Bliss, which premieres on Feb. 5. This will star Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek as a couple experiencing some intimacy issues. Presumably this is all just a tune up for when Wilson dons a mustache in Disney+’s Loki later in May. The other film is the sci-fi rom-com The Map of Tiny Perfect Things on Feb. 12.

Other library movies include Antz, Moulin Rouge, The Prestige, The Village, and Dazed and Confused, all of which arrive on Feb. 1. Sonic the Hedgehog is set to arrive later on Feb. 18.

Amazon is premiering only one new original series this month.

Madrid-based Onza, producer of hit Spanish series “The Department of Time” and Amazon Prime Video romantic comedy “Little Coincidences,” is expanding into the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic markets, establishing a Miami-based subsidiary, Onza Américas.

CEO and co-founder of Onza with its executive president José María Irisarri and Nicolás Bergareche, Gonzalo Sagardia has been named Onza Américas CEO.

A reaction to “the proliferation of content platforms” avid for Spanish-language content, Onza announced Tuesday in a press statement, Onza Americas is launched in partnership with former Fox Television Studios president Emiliano Calemzuk, and Vincenzo Gratteri, ex-content director at Patricio Wills’ Miami and Mexico-based W Studios.

Calemzuk and Gratteri will both become minority partners in Onza Americas, the still-highly connected Calemzuk serving in a non-executive role as chairman of the advisory board, and Gratteri taking up the position of SVP of development and production.

Onza Américas will be introducing itself and...

Latin America’s Movistar, a label of telecom giant Telefonica, has closed a worldwide sales deal with Madrid-based Onza Distribution on the first four Movistar original series.

The deal excludes Latin America where Movistar has aired the series on Movistar Play, the burgeoning Ott services of pay TV unit Movistar TV, from September 2019. Onza Distribution will present the series virtually at MipChina, which runs July 28-31.

Representing the latest work of some of Latin America’s best-regarded film directors, who have won prizes at the Cannes, Sundance, Locarno and San Sebastian film festivals, the series take in comedies “Adulting,” “Capital Roar” and “Survival Guide,” and melodrama “My Lucky Day.”

The deal represents a major new fiction addition to the sales slate of Onza Distribution, a producer on Amazon Prime Video-aired “Little Coincidences” and a producer and co-sales agent on Spanish pubcaster Rtve’s “The Department of Time.”

Addressing different age groups,...

Exclusive: Richard Brooks (Law & Order) is set as a series regular opposite Janina Gavankar and Reid Scott in NBC drama pilot Echo, from JJ Bailey, Davis Entertainment and Universal Television. Written by Bailey, Echo is a high-concept, genre procedural revolving around a team of investigators who solve the highest-profile crimes by sending our heroes into the past — in the body of the victim. They assume the victim’s identity and must race against time to prevent the crime before it happens. Brooks will play Carl Gaines, an old-school police officer. Brooks can be seen recurring on Freeform’s Good Trouble and in Amazon’s Bosch. He’s known for his portrayal of Paul Robinette on Law & Order, a role which he reprised on Chicago Justice. He was a series regular on Bet’s Being Mary Jane for four seasons. Brooks is repped by Thruline Entertainment, Clear Talent Group...

It must be a pretty funny day at NBC.

After ordering two comedy pilots this morning, the network has commissioned three more, all from a cluster of creatives who have previous experience on some of the Peacock’s biggest comedies.

The first pilot is a single-camera comedy titled “Crazy For You,” which has “Saturday Night Live” producer and “Silicon Valley” writer Rachele Lynn in place to write and co-executive produce. The Universal Television, Broadway Video and Sethmaker Shoemeyers Productions project counts Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels and Mike Shoemaker among its EPs.

“Crazy For You” revolves around Daisy who, with her life stalling, re-enters the dating scene only to discover that while she was out of the game, the game sort of, totally, completely changed. Realizing she is a bit rusty at being “normal” and “appealing” on first dates, she’ll need the support of her friends as she strives to...