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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain

Alejandro Amenábar films La Fortuna in Madrid

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- After the pandemic brought the industry to a standstill, shoots have now returned to Madrid, including this adventure series starring Stanley Tucci, Blanca Portillo, Ana Polvorosa and Álvaro Mel

Alejandro Amenábar films La Fortuna in Madrid
Director Alejandro Amenábar with La Fortuna actors Álvaro Mel and Ana Polvorosa

“Filming is an immense challenge that our entire team is taking on with a huge amount of excitement and responsibility. La Fortuna is about optimism and the will to fight,” stated Alejandro Amenábar about this project based on the graphic novel El tesoro del Cisne Negro by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral, which was interrupted by the start of the pandemic in March 2020, like so many others. However, once the state of emergency had been lifted in Spain, its shoot resumed in Madrid.

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Its six episodes are being produced by Movistar Plus+ and AMC Studios, in conjunction with Mod Producciones, and it stars Stanley Tucci, Blanca Portillo, Manolo Solo, Karra Elejalde, Ana Polvorosa and Álvaro Mel. The synopsis introduces us to an inexperienced diplomat who unintentionally becomes the head of a mission to recover the underwater treasure stolen by Frank Wild, an adventurer who goes around plundering the common heritage of the darkest depths of the sea.

The fact is that Madrid has been enjoying a swift recovery since 21 June 2020: the City Council Department for the Authorisation of Filming processed 1,143 applications for occupation of the public highway during the first four months following the lockdown. In the first month, the number of requests amounted to 58% of the July 2019 figure; in August, the prior record was broken, reaching 120% compared to the previous year; in September, it amounted to 93%; and in October, the figure stood at 58%. During this period, 97 adverts, 40 TV series and 17 films were shot (although these figures do not include the permits granted for smaller crews of up to 15 people, which wouldn’t require a permanent occupation of space).

Standing out among the series shot over the last few months in Madrid are Parot, starring Adriana Ugarte, produced by Onza Entertainment, ViacomCBS Internation Studios and RTVE; the thriller Ana Tramel. El juego, staged by Tornasol Films and DeAPlaneta, starring Maribel Verdú, directed by Gracia Querejeta and Salvador García Ruíz; and Glow & Darkness, produced by Dreamlight International Productions, starring Joan Collins and Geraldine Chaplin.

The streets, parks and squares of the Spanish capital have also played host to the shoots for Veneno [+see also:
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(Suma Latina and Apache Films); Deudas (GoodMood); Jaguar (Bambú Producciones), starring Blanca Suárez; and El tiempo que te doy (Corte y Confección de Películas), directed by and starring Nadia de Santiago. This is in addition to the new seasons of Money Heist (Vancouver Media), Elite (Zeta Ficción TV), Valeria [+see also:
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]
(Plano a Plano), Pequeñas coincidencias (Onza) and Estoy vivo (Globomedia).

As for features, shoots wrapped for Official Competition [+see also:
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, co-directed by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat; and La abuela [+see also:
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interview: Paco Plaza
film profile
]
 by Paco Plaza. The most notable first films to be shot after the lockdown were the feature debut by Ignacio Tatay, Jaula [+see also:
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]
(working title: La casa de la tiza) (Pokeepsie Films); the sophomore effort by Daniel Guzmán, Canallas [+see also:
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interview: Daniel Guzmán
film profile
]
(working title: La gran mentira) (La Canica Films); the second feature by Arantxa Echevarría, La familia perfecta [+see also:
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]
; and the new outing by Fernando León de Aranoa, The Good Boss [+see also:
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]
.

Many of these projects saw the cooperation of the City of Madrid Film Office, and several were shot in spaces managed by Madrid Destino, which, in the context of the so-called Plan Aplaude instigated by the City Council’s Department of Culture, were made available free of charge until the end of 2020 as a support measure for the film industry.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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