Anonymous Content Execs on Walter Salles Doc Series About Brazil Soccer Star Socrates, English-Language Spanish Civil War Project
Top executives from Anonymous Content (True Detective, Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer, Spotlight, The Revenant) and its joint ventures in Spain and Brazil took the stage in Madrid on Wednesday as day 2 of the fourth annual Iberseries & Platino Industria event kicked off.
Jacobo Aparicio director of international at Anonymous Content in L.A., Barbara Teixeira, CEO of Anonymous Content Brazil, the company’s joint venture with an investment from Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and Beatriz Campos, managing director of Anonymous Content Spain, a joint venture with Morena Films, discussed their strategy and development plans in a spotlight session moderated by the writer of these lines.
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Campos said that since she is only a few months into her role, she has no official titles to unveil, but shared that, “we have two films and four TV series in development.” All of them are Spanish-language, except for one international English-language project. “We jumped on board because we love the concept,” she explained. “We’re conscious that English-language might be slightly more difficult, but it’s a story that is set in Spain’s Civil War, but it has a very organic international approach. It makes sense to tell that story, and it’s one that we’re trying to put together with our partners in the U.S.”
Meanwhile, Teixeira touted two previously announced projects from AC Brazil. They are its first scripted project, a TV adaptation of Raphael Montes’ bestseller Perfect Days, and a documentary series about Brazilian soccer star Sócrates with VideoFilmes, both for Globoplay, the streaming service of industry giant Globo Brazil.
The eight-episode Perfect Days, directed by Joana Jabace (Precious Pearl) and written by Claudia Jouvin (The Nightshifter), is about Clarice (Julia Dalavia), a carefree screenwriter who playfully kisses awkward medical student Téo to annoy her college boyfriend. But the joke turns into a nightmare when the obsessed Téo kidnaps her and takes her on a road trip across Rio de Janeiro. Teixeira called it “a big thriller.”
Meanwhile, the Sócrates project will also show the star as a “very prominent political figure,” she shared. “It’s a very human story, more than an athlete’s biography, as only Walter Salles could tell it. So it’s something we’re really excited about.” Salles’ I’m Still Here was recently selected as Brazil’s contender for the best international feature Oscar.
Aparicio described the goal of Anonymous Content’s international joint ventures (it also has them for the U.K., France, and the Nordics) as being “able to reach not just the U.S. audience, but a global audience, and encourage local offices to be ambitious in their storytelling, risky, daring, and to be able to really aim for something truly special.”
Arguing that the COVID pandemic and the dual Hollywood strikes opened audiences’ eyes to new content from more parts of the world, he concluded: “Those stories have been the ones that have really resonated.”
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