Making an Old World discovery
Sales agents tap new generation of helmers
Last week, the ebullient Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia ("Perdita Durango," "Common Wealth") announced France's TF1 Intl. will perform international sales duties on his upcoming "800 Bullets."
The deal is no flash in the pan. Beyond Pedro Almodovar's "Hable con ella," agents from outside Spain and Latin America have picked up at least seven Spanish-lingo pics since 1999. Six will be at this February's American Film Market: Mexico's "Y tu mama tambien"; Argentina's "Nine Queens" and "The Son of the Bride"; and Spain's "Hable," "No News From God" and "Bullets."Columbia TriStar, Buena Vista Intl. and Warner Bros. are all advancing on co-productions in Spain and Latin America.
Are movies en espanol the next big thing? Certainly, they are riding a rising wave with overseas vendors.
Expanding horizons
The move into Spanish-language filmmaking says a lot for the international sales biz. Competing with the studios, sales agents around the world have had to expand their horizons to encompass quality pics in all genres and languages.
Guillermo del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone," handled by Spain's Sogepaq and France's Wild Bunch, has sold out worldwide. "Mama" has already gone to 45 territories.
"Companies see a market for Spanish-lingo films that not only work very commercially in the Spanish-speaking market, competing with Hollywood pictures, but also in the talent of the future -- and that talent is delivering at this moment," says Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker, a frequent U.S. distributor of Almodovar pics.
"There's a lot of interesting filmmaking going on around the world right now, but my impression is that much of it is coming out of Spain and Latin America," says David Linde, prexy of Good Machine Intl. which is selling both "Hable" and "Mama."
Spanish-lingo filmmaking may also be changing. The directors of most recent Spanish-lingo pick-ups are thirty- or early forty-somethings.
"These younger filmmakers are more entrepreneurial as to how to raise financing, and are open to dealing with sales agents," says Endeavor agent Sergio Aguero.
Beyond "Mama's" Mexican slang, these pics are now far more accessible. Spanish art films mined political themes: the society Franco had created; oppression in Latin America. This was stirring ideological entertainment -- but only for the initiated.
The new Hispano helmers still have social attitude -- but they hardly push the envelope. The workaholic in Argentine pic "Son of the Bride" works desperately to keep his family's restaurant going, pleading with banks. The restaurant could stand for Argentina, argues its sales agent, Menemsha Entertainment's Neil Friedman. But the point is never labored.
Audience-friendly
"We're trying to entertain and be comprehensible. We don't want to go on so much about the Civil War or whatever," says De la Iglesia.
"Mama" is a down-and-dirty dirt-track movie. In the Mamet-ish "Queens," the scammer get scammed. "Bullets" takes place on a spaghetti western set.
Directors Aldfonso Cuaron ("Mama"), Guillermo del Toro ("Backbone") and Juan Jose Campanella ("Son") have all worked in Hollywood.
"Buyers are looking for genre films, but with a twist," says Barker. On this count, the films deliver too.
The beauty of "Mama," says Linde, is that "it's a road/buddy movie, but it's also about two young Mexicans facing a personal transition in a country that is in transition too."
