Filmax is unveiling "Borgias" to buyers in Berlin.

Directed by Spain's Antonio Hernandez whose "City Of No Limits" played in Berlin's Panorama, pic portrays the ambitions, treachery, wars and wayward sexual passions of the Renaissance dynasty which produced a highly-sexed Pope, Alexander VI. His son Cesare served as a role model for Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince."

Vega plays conspiring aristo Catarina Sforza. Maria Valverde takes the role of Lucrecia Borgia. Luis Homar, Pedro Almodovar's paedophile priest in "Bad Education," limns Alexander VI.

"Borgias" is the largest production to date from Spanish broadcaster Antena 3. Web is also producing a three-hour "Los Borgias" miniseries.

Filmax's pickup signals not only its eagerness to muscle in on sales duties on high-bracket Euro fare but, potentially, the beginning of a sales alliance with Antena 3, which is obliged by law to invest $50 million a year in Euro films.

Now in post, "Borgias" has a big head start on Neil Jordan's long-mooted but yet-to-coalesce "Borgia" project.