Having spent three years making buzzy Spanish series La Mesías, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo have admitted to a crisis of confidence before the show was released.
The pair are huge stars in Spain and recognized at home and increasingly abroad. People are politely waiting for selfies when Deadline spoke to them at Series Mania, where they scooped the Best Directing accolade for the latest project, which was an original for Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+.
“When we made the show, we were like, ‘maybe nobody’s watching this.’ We were confident in the beginning, then got really scared,” Calvo said. “We were like, ‘is this too hard, is it too painful for the audience?’”
They needn’t have worried. Movistar does not break out viewing data, but the series created a huge stir in Spain, with buzz building as the episodes dropped in weekly instalments.
La Mesías – The Messiah in...
The pair are huge stars in Spain and recognized at home and increasingly abroad. People are politely waiting for selfies when Deadline spoke to them at Series Mania, where they scooped the Best Directing accolade for the latest project, which was an original for Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+.
“When we made the show, we were like, ‘maybe nobody’s watching this.’ We were confident in the beginning, then got really scared,” Calvo said. “We were like, ‘is this too hard, is it too painful for the audience?’”
They needn’t have worried. Movistar does not break out viewing data, but the series created a huge stir in Spain, with buzz building as the episodes dropped in weekly instalments.
La Mesías – The Messiah in...
- 3/23/2024
- by Stewart Clarke
- Deadline Film + TV
Martin da un salto a la actuación tras Operación Triunfo 2023 con una serie musical de los Javis. © Prime Video
El sexto finalista del concurso de Prime Video, Ot 2023, Martín Urrutia, formará parte de la próxima serie musical de Atresplayer, bajo la dirección de Javier Calvo y Javier Ambrossi.
El joven cantante vasco, que quedó sexto en el concurso de Amazon Prime Video, debutará como actor en “Mariliendre”. Una serie, creada por Javier Ferreiro, que cuenta la historia de Meri Román, que hace más de una década era la reina de la noche gay madrileña. Ahora, a sus 35 años, se enfrenta a una vida atormentada por su pasado y aburrida de su mediocre presente. Después de la muerte de su padre, Meri se reencuentra con sus amigos gays, y revive los viejos tiempos y sus grandes éxitos musicales que marcaron su época dorada, mientras trata de definir su complicada vida y...
El sexto finalista del concurso de Prime Video, Ot 2023, Martín Urrutia, formará parte de la próxima serie musical de Atresplayer, bajo la dirección de Javier Calvo y Javier Ambrossi.
El joven cantante vasco, que quedó sexto en el concurso de Amazon Prime Video, debutará como actor en “Mariliendre”. Una serie, creada por Javier Ferreiro, que cuenta la historia de Meri Román, que hace más de una década era la reina de la noche gay madrileña. Ahora, a sus 35 años, se enfrenta a una vida atormentada por su pasado y aburrida de su mediocre presente. Después de la muerte de su padre, Meri se reencuentra con sus amigos gays, y revive los viejos tiempos y sus grandes éxitos musicales que marcaron su época dorada, mientras trata de definir su complicada vida y...
- 3/22/2024
- by Marta Medina
- mundoCine
Malaga — Antonio Chavarrías’ “Holy Mother,” Celia Rico’s “Little Loves” and Diogo Viegas’s “Alice’s Diary” play at this year’s 3rd Spanish Screenings Content, the Malaga Festival’s part of the Spanish Screenings Xxl, Spain’s biggest international industry platform in its history, featuring over March 4-7 and – when it comes to Málaga – the monumental number of 222 titles.
In production volume, Spain has never had it so good. The market screenings at Malaga’s Rosaleda Multiplex range across over 80 Spanish movie titles, taking in recent past gems such as “The Girls Are All Right, “Something Is About to Happen,” “Jokes & Cigarettes and “The Chapel,” just to mention titles on Monday’s program.
Also on offer are 11 Works in Progress, 62 Film Library titles and 65 shorts.
The Screenings come at a propitious time in many ways for Spanish cinema. Two Spanish movies – J.A. Bayona’s Andean air crash disaster...
In production volume, Spain has never had it so good. The market screenings at Malaga’s Rosaleda Multiplex range across over 80 Spanish movie titles, taking in recent past gems such as “The Girls Are All Right, “Something Is About to Happen,” “Jokes & Cigarettes and “The Chapel,” just to mention titles on Monday’s program.
Also on offer are 11 Works in Progress, 62 Film Library titles and 65 shorts.
The Screenings come at a propitious time in many ways for Spanish cinema. Two Spanish movies – J.A. Bayona’s Andean air crash disaster...
- 3/3/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Jean Labadie’s Le Pacte and sales agency Film Factory have joined Spanish pay giant Movistar Plus on the next film from Alberto Rodríguez (“Marshland”), which is shaping up fast with as one of the biggest packages from Spain this year at the Berlinale’s European Film Market.
Le Pacte will co-produce the thriller out of France and handle French distribution rights. Film Factory is launching international sales at Berlin. Movistar Plus, co-producing out of Spain with Kowalski Films and Feelgood Media, will bring the deepest pocket of any production powerhouse in Spain, backing what looks like a potentially big-budgeted movie.
Currently in pre-production, Rodríguez’s latest is scheduled for release in Spanish theaters via Buena Vista Intl. in 2025.
The film is also the latest from one of the most prominent Spanish directors of his generation, co-writer-director of both “The Plague,” still one of Movistar Plus+ biggest series, and “Prison 77,...
Le Pacte will co-produce the thriller out of France and handle French distribution rights. Film Factory is launching international sales at Berlin. Movistar Plus, co-producing out of Spain with Kowalski Films and Feelgood Media, will bring the deepest pocket of any production powerhouse in Spain, backing what looks like a potentially big-budgeted movie.
Currently in pre-production, Rodríguez’s latest is scheduled for release in Spanish theaters via Buena Vista Intl. in 2025.
The film is also the latest from one of the most prominent Spanish directors of his generation, co-writer-director of both “The Plague,” still one of Movistar Plus+ biggest series, and “Prison 77,...
- 2/18/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Telefonica’s Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest pay TV-svod operator, is set to co-produce new movies from Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Iciar Bollaín, Alberto Rodríguez, Óliver Laxe and Ana Rujas. It’s a move which sees the high-end Spanish TV powerhouse become one of Spain’s most significant movie players.
Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
The acclaimed “La Mesías,” the latest series from Los Javis – as Ambrossi and Calvo are known – will have its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will the only European series at this year’s event.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will...
Titles in the slate are backed by top Spanish producers such as Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García at El Deseo – backing Laxe’s next – and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their high-flying new production house Suma Content, producing what will be Rujas’ debut feature as a director.
The acclaimed “La Mesías,” the latest series from Los Javis – as Ambrossi and Calvo are known – will have its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it will the only European series at this year’s event.
In a fillip for Spain’s box office, still 26% down on pre-pandemic levels, Movistar Plus+ will...
- 1/18/2024
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Turning on real-life 1990s trans icon Cristina Ortiz, “Veneno” established Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo as leading LGBTQ directors in Spain.
In “La Mesías,” they bring their hallmark visceral sense of diversity to each and every scene and episode, which lends them their large distinction.
“We’re not very conscious of it, but you can see diversity in how each character reacts differently to trauma, as well as the genre mix and diversity of settings. It’s a bit like how we are; we like a lot of things and modes,” says Calvo.
In the series, protagonist Enric (Roger Casamajor) is eviscerated emotionally by his childhood trauma which involves his fanatically religious mother. In contrast Sister Irene (Macarena García) tries to make a new life. Enric escapes but is triggered into action when he sees his siblings on TV performing as a Christian music group.
Episode 1 blends psychodrama and sci-fi,...
In “La Mesías,” they bring their hallmark visceral sense of diversity to each and every scene and episode, which lends them their large distinction.
“We’re not very conscious of it, but you can see diversity in how each character reacts differently to trauma, as well as the genre mix and diversity of settings. It’s a bit like how we are; we like a lot of things and modes,” says Calvo.
In the series, protagonist Enric (Roger Casamajor) is eviscerated emotionally by his childhood trauma which involves his fanatically religious mother. In contrast Sister Irene (Macarena García) tries to make a new life. Enric escapes but is triggered into action when he sees his siblings on TV performing as a Christian music group.
Episode 1 blends psychodrama and sci-fi,...
- 10/15/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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