News

Separate straight licensing deals for Some Time Later, Dalia And The Red Book 3D.

Guido Rud’s Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has reported brisk business in the run-up to Toronto, led by a Us remake rights deal through its division The Remake Co. on Argentinian hit I Married A Dumbass (Me Casé Con Un Boludo).

Btf Media, a production company with offices in the Us, Mexico and Argentina, has taken remake rights to Juan Taratuto’s romantic comedy (pictured), which has generated more than two million admissions in South American theatres through Buena Vista International. Rud struck earlier remake deals on...

Sony’s claims 60% market share of box office for local films in Spain in year-to-date.

Sony Pictures International Productions’ (Spip) Spanish comedy Padre No Hay Más Que Uno (Father Is The Only One) has delivered the highest opening weekend by a local film in Spain so far this year.

The comedy remake earned an estimated $1.8m and boosts Sony Pictures Releasing International’s (Spri) box office in Spain for local titles to $26m and 60% market share.

Spri’s other local releases in the market this year include: Carlos Therón’s comedy I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Lo Dejo Cuando Quiera) on $12.8m,...

FilmSharks Intl. has renewed its close film-by-film working relationship with Atresmedia Cine, one of Spain’s biggest movie producers, acquiring international rights to its latest comedy “Off Course … to China,” a Warner Bros. release in Spain.

The deal was negotiated by FilmSharks’ founder Guido Rud and Atresmedia Cine CEO Mercedes Gamero and executive producer María Contreras.

“Off Course … to China” takes the often hapless young Spanish emigrants of 2015’s “Off Course,” and transfers them from Germany to Hong Kong. They’re still fish out of water.

Released in Spain in February, “Off Course … to China,” directed by Paco Caballero, has grossed $3.3 million at box office, making it the fourth highest-grossing Spanish film of 2019.

In first deals on the title, Wiesner Distribution has acquired rights to Central America and is planning a theatrical release, Rud said. Av Jet has closed Taiwan. Deals in the U.S. , China, Latin America, among other territories,...

Filming on Spanish comedy underway in Madrid.

Sony Pictures International Productions has come on board to jointly produce with Bowfinger International Pictures Santiago Segura’s Spanish comedy Ten Days Without Mom (Padre No Hay Más Que Uno).

Filming on the marquee production has kicked off in Madrid based on a screenplay by Segura and his Empowered co-writer Marta González de la Vega. Segura is the three-time Goya Award-winner and creator of the smash Torrente franchise, and runs Bowfinger International with María Luisa Gutiérrez.

Segura plays Javier, a “marido-cuñao” husband who knows nothing about housework or childcare and is forced to...

Filming on Spanish comedy underway in Madrid.

Sony Pictures International Productions has come on board to jointly produce with Bowfinger International Pictures Santiago Segura’s Spanish comedy Ten Days Without Mom (Padre No Hay Más Que Uno).

Filming on the marquee production has kicked off in Madrid based on a screenplay by Segura and his Empowered co-writer Marta González de la Vega. Segura is the three-time Goya Award-winner and creator of the smash Torrente franchise, and runs Bowfinger International with María Luisa Gutiérrez.

Segura plays Javier, a “marido-cuñao” husband who knows nothing about housework or childcare and is forced to...

‘Champions’ was a stand-out Spanish title.

Sports comedy Champions, directed by Javier Fesser, stands out as the year’s most popular local film at the Spanish box office with $21.6m, ranking at number four overall for 2018 after Hollywood trio Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom, Incredibles 2 and Avengers: Infinity War.

Champions, chosen as Spain’s foreign-language Oscar entry, is well ahead of the year’s other top local productions including The Best Summer Of My Life with $9m, and 2017 release Perfect Strangers, which has grossed $7.5m since January 5 this year.

The success of Champions — a comedy about a basketball coach who...

Exclusive: HBO Latino has snapped up U.S. rights to thriller Dark Buildings (Las Grietas De Jara) and comedy Empowered (Sin Rodeos) from Argentinian sales outfit FilmSharks.

Oscar Martinez (The Distinguished Citizen) and Joaquin Furriel (La Quietud) star in the former about a dark secret at an architecture firm. The film has also been picked up by HBO Europe for Eastern Europe. Disney/Buena Vista previously picked up multi-territory rights to the movie in South America.

Comedy Empowered comes from Torrente franchise director Santiago Segura and stars Maribel Verdu (Pan’s Labyrinth) in the lead role as a woman who, after a visit to an Indian healer, starts saying aloud what she would previously have only thought. The pic has also newly sold to Edel for German-speaking Europe. Previous deals included Contracorriente for Spain, Colarado for Italy and Palace Pictures for Aus/Nz.

Meanwhile, also for FilmSharks, Tribeca horror You...

Female-empowerment comedy “Sin Rodeos” (“Empowered”), the recent Spanish hit from “Torrente” star-director Santiago Segura, is proving there’s an audience for feminist-tinted comedies in a machista world.

Starring Maribel Verdú, and released by Adolfo Blanco’s A Contracorriente Films on March 2, “Empowered” bowed in the No. 2 spot at the Spanish box office for a final $5.5 million box office take, making it the third-biggest Spanish release to date in 2018

Also starring Rafael Spregelburd (“The Man Next Door”) and with a cameo from Segura, “Empowered” has been licensed via sales shingle Film Sharks to Australia/New Zealand (Palace Pictures), Italy (Colorado Films) and Argentina and Uruguay (new distributor Digicine).

Also closed: Colombia and Peru (Cinecolor Films), Central America (Wiesner Distribution), former Yugoslavia (2i Films) and Taiwan (Av Jet). The U.S., France, Greece, Turkey, Russia and China are under negotiation, Rud added.

The five “Torrente” saga comedies, which have grossed an aggregate €79.9 million ($90.1 million) in Spain,...