MIPCOM: John Turturro, Melissa Leo Films Lead Mediapro’s Slate of English-Language Content
Spanish studio Mediapro has unveiled its slate of English-language content in the U.S. and Canada at MIPCOM Cannes on Wednesday, including a new film written and directed by and starring John Turturro.
Head of Mediapro Studio in the U.S. and Canada J.C. Acosta spoke with 24 producer Evan Katz, head of unscripted at Mediapro Pam Healey, CEO Laura Fernandez Espeso, TV producer Ran Tellem and Oscar-winning writer-director Juan-José Campanella.
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Espeso began: “Our strategic approach in the U.S. aligns perfectly with our initiatives in other key territories, emphasizing the creativity of the talent, but also relevance and reach and, of course, diversity, which is a priority in our company.” It was over to Acosta, who spoke optimistically and passionately about “writing a new chapter in the U.S. and Canada, doubling down on English language content,” after Mediapro North America was unveiled six months ago.
Their fully-fledged English-language content strategy is beginning to shape up with a video message from John Turturro revealing his adaptation of Susan Sheehan’s Pulitzer prize-winning book Is There No Place on Earth for Me? Turturro will write, direct, and star in the project.
Turturro said: “It’s a story about a brilliant woman who suffers with schizophrenia and her family, the journey that they go through, traveling through the labyrinth of the mental health system. I’ve always resisted doing one of these kinds of films because I’ve had personal experience in growing up with a brother who also suffered with schizophrenia.” He continued, “Once I read the book, I was really enthused that someone had captured all its complexities and humor and lust and manipulations and hopes and dreams.”
Oscar winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) will lead Mother Wolf, about a retired grandmother, on the verge of a trip of a lifetime, who suddenly becomes caretaker of her brood of grandchildren. Suzi Yoonessi (Unloveable, Daphne & Velma) directs. Matt Walsh (Veep) and Arian Moyaed (Succession) will also star. “We stand on the shoulders of Mediapro’s film history. One of the things that Mediapro loves is an iconic female lead.”
From Daniel Burman comes Witness 36, about a woman who helps create new identities for people in witness protection, falling in love with one of the men she helped. Emmy-winning producer Evan Katz, signed on as showrunner and known for his hit series 24, said: “The premise is fantastic. It’s rare that it does not feel like a version of something you’ve seen before — a woman falling in love with her own creation has these thematic echoes [such as] Freud and Frankenstein. The show has really big stakes, but the story itself is very personal, which is exactly what I look for and what I think leads to success.”
An original half-hour episodic series by Ran Tellem (Homeland, The Head) is I Love the Prime Minister about a 33-year-old woman searching for a relationship in the world of modern dating — but she also happens to be the Prime Minister. Matt Hastings, a co-executive producer on The Handmaid’s Tale is also attached.
Tellam said: “TV is focused on YA, young adults. I think we should open up a new genre, a new age group, which is adults who are young, just like our character. She’s 33, she has everything she needs to be a prime minister. She’s powerful, she’s smart, she’s tenacious, she’s focused. She has achieved everything, but not really everything, because being young means you’re also yearning for something else, a relationship, a partner, a love.”
Campanella, who won the Academy Award for best foreign film for The Secret in Their Eyes spoke about the series adaptation of his Argentine film Son of the Bride also nominated for an Oscar. Campanella will write and direct the project: “I’ve been seeing lately that movies and television have veered to the exotic, to the outlandish, to the dystopian in a way,” Campanella siad. “And some great comedies that are very genre-bending and or transgressive, the kind of human comedy that I like to do, and I’d like to watch, is very scarce.”
Unscripted chief Healey also unveiled projects lined up under her remit. The long-running Spanish gameshow format of Catch Me If You Can will be brought to U.S. buyers. The show has more than 10,000 episodes in Spain and The Floor‘s Anthony Carbone will adapt the format for the U.S. as executive producer and showrunner.
A true crime documentary called Hollywood Homicide: Robert Blake will look at the life of the actor who, once famed for his roles in In Cold Blood and Baretta, was accused of the 2001 murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley. The story is explored through the lens of his son, Noah, “who’s always wondering what really happened,” Healey said.
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