Anna Marie De-La-Fuente: Celebs Rumors

Anna Marie de la Fuente When Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) signed on to direct superhero epic “Eternals,” she was given free rein to take the film in whichever direction she chose. That creative freedom allowed her to shoot “Eternals” on Spain’s Canary Islands, among other sites. It became the Marvel film that shot the most on-location of any in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “You want to see the character in relationship to the world behind them. It’s very difficult to make that feel real on stage. So going to a location was a very natural progression,” Zhao says in Marvel Studios doc “Assembled: The Making of Eternals.” Canary island Fuerteventura is known for its rugged landscape and black-sand beaches. It stood in well for Mesopotamia, Babylon, the Neanderthal era and the Australian Outback in the fantasy film, which spans 7,000 years and some eight epochs. Sister island Lanzarote and its iconic and most accessible volcano, the Cuervo, also formed a dramatic backdrop, especially in the final set pieces.

Anna Marie de la Fuente For Argentina’s Santiago Mitre, his courtroom drama “Argentina 1985,” a Golden Lion contender at the 79th Venice Film Festival, is an examination of the machinations of power from within, as were his past four features. But unlike those films, “Argentina 1985” is based on a real event, the trial of Argentina’s military leaders who ruled with brutal impunity until democracy was finally restored in 1983. The civil trial is considered one of the most significant in modern world history, along with the Nuremberg trials when defeated Nazi leaders were put on the stand. The difference in this David vs. Goliath story is that Argentina’s military junta still had a grip on power when they were taken to court for their crimes.

Anna Marie de la Fuente When Chile’s preeminent documentarian, Patricio Guzman, receives a lifetime achievement award at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) on Aug. 16, he’ll also be marking his 81st birthday.Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The 18th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) is paying tribute to Chile’s most internationally renowned and arguably hardest working actor, the peripatetic Alfredo Castro who will attend Sanfic’s inauguration Aug. 14 to receive his lifetime achievement award and kick off a retrospective of his films.Also a playwright and theater director, Castro has worked across Europe and Latin America, acting in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a number of accents and dialects from Latin America, including neutral Spanish.

Anna Marie de la Fuente “Kings of the World” (“Los Reyes del Mundo”), by Colombia’s Laura Mora (“Killing Jesus,” “Frontera Verde”) has shared its trailer exclusively with Variety in advance of its world premiere in Spain’s San Sebastian festival and its Oct. 6 theatrical release in Colombia.Said Mora: “We are very happy to finally be able to release the film! It has been a very long and demanding process….

Anna Marie de la Fuente Brazilian filmmaker Julia Murat’s provocative drama “Rule 34” (“Regra 34”) has shared its trailer exclusively with Variety before its bow at the Locarno Film Festival.If the trailer is anything to go by, the movie will make the filmmakers behind “50 Shades of Gray” blush. “Rule 34” competes in the official section of the Swiss festival which posts the following disclaimer on its site: “This film features scenes that could shock the sensitivity of some viewers.”As explained in the Urban Dictionary, Rule 34 refers to “the 34th rule of the Internet, which states that any object, character, or media franchise imaginable has porn associated with it.”“Rule 34” turns on 23-year-old Simone (played by Sol Miranda) who studies criminal law and advocates for women’s rights.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s Santiago Lab, the Santiago Film Festival’s industry initiative to support Ibero-American projects in development, has selected 28 titles, 14 fiction and 14 documentaries, culled out of hundreds of entries from across Latin America and Spain.Some of the titles were picked from other festivals’ industry events such as “Diamante,” from Malaga’s Mafiz; Constanza Figari’s “A Woman Wants to Die,” which Sanfic awarded at Industria Guadalajara this year, along with “MC Silencio,” a Colombian production from Medellin, an emerging audiovisual hub in Colombia, said Sanfic Industry head and festival co-founder, Gabriela Sandoval.The same goes for some of the documentaries such as “The Silence of a Patio” a gripping documentary about the dark history of the Casa de la Beneficencia of Castellón, Spain which was presented at Doc Valencia. Docu “Bloques Erraticos” is the first full-length feature doc of Thomas Woodroffe whose acclaimed shorts include “Austral Fever” and “Holding Desire.” Sanfic Industry leaned on its advisors for the selection.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The 12th Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest (AMFF) in Spain is reeling in a bevy of luminaries led by Neil Jordan, Isabelle Huppert and Ukraine’s Sergei Loznitsa who will be recognized with Master of Ceremonies honors.Jordan is attending the festival’s inauguration to receive his award and is also presenting his Oscar-winning “The Crying Game,” which marks its 30th year since its acclaimed debut. Other leading lights attending the festival include Gaspar Noé (“Vortex”), Annie Ernaux (“The Super 8 Years”) and Alain Guiraudie (“Nobody’s Hero”) presenting their respective films.Launched in 2010 by leading Spanish independent film streaming platform Filmin, the festival opens July 24 with “Ramona” the debut feature of Madrid-born Andrea Bagney, shot mostly in black and white on 16mm.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro is launching a cash rebate incentive of up to 35% for the first time. Run by government agency RioFilme, the new program is aimed to benefit international productions that spend at least R$15 million ($3 million) in the picturesque beach city.The incentive makes it among the most attractive offers in the region, led by Colombia’s 40% cash rebate on local qualified spend and a 20% cash rebate on logistical expenses such as hotels, catering and transportation. Rio’s neighboring city of Sao Paulo offers cash rebates of 20% to 30%.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Manolo Cardona, one of Colombia’s top actors who has starred in such Netflix hits as “Narcos” and “Who Killed Sara?,” is now filming his directorial debut, “One Must Die,” for Paramount+.Cardona also stars in the suspense thriller and is joined by Spain’s Maribel Verdu, who starred in “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Belle Epoque” and “Y Tu Mamá Tambien,” and is soon featured in the upcoming DC film “The Flash.” The rest of the cast includes Carla Adell, Juan Carlos Remolina, Dagoberto Gama, Fernando Becerril and Adriana Paz.In the story written by Julieta Steimberg and Gavo Amiel, seven people are kidnapped and find themselves unwilling participants in a deadly game. In order to survive, the captives must choose one of them to die, but this person will have to agree to be sacrificed.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The upcoming ViX Plus romantic drama series “Travesuras de la Niña Mala” (“Bad Girl”), an adaptation of the 2006 novel by Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, has found its heroine.Macarena Achaga, who most recently starred in HBO Max’s “Father of the Bride,” will play Arlette, a non-conformist who urges her lover to break away from his routine and be more adventurous. Their lives will intersect over forty years across Lima, Paris, Madrid, Tokyo, London and other cities.“‘The ‘Bad Girl’ invites us to challenge our life in auto pilot, transform ourselves and take charge of who we want to be, and seek happiness while feeling immortal because what is life without those moments when we forget that everything has an end?” the synopsis goes.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Claudia Sainte-Luce’s “El reino de Dios” (“The Realm of God”) and “Carajita” by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra took home the bulk of the prizes in their respective categories, the Mayahuel for best Mexican film and best Ibero-American film at the 37th Guadalajara Int’l Film Fest (FICG), which wrapped June 18.Festival highlights included a conversation, albeit by remote, between festival director Estrella Araiza and Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro who talked about the making of his upcoming stop-motion animation feature, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” The film, set to bow on Netflix in December, was filmed with 20 animators in more than 60 sets in Canada and Guadalajara, Del Toro revealed. Sainte-Luce’s coming-of-age drama about a young boy’s struggle with his faith as he’s about to take his first communion, which world premiered at the Berlinale’s Generation Kplus sidebar, also won FICG’s Mezcal awards for best cinematography, actor and director as well as the Mezcal Youth Jury award for best film.In her acceptance speech, Sainte-Luce dedicated her multiple recognitions to her grandmother who had recently died.Dominican Republic drama “Carajita,” by Silvina Schnicer and Ulises Porra, adds another clutch of prizes which includes the HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award it won at the 39th Miami film fest in March.Co-produced by Wooden Boat Productions (Dominican Republic) and Pucará Cine (Argentina), the drama turns on the relationship between a young girl and her nanny that transcends race and class.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has snapped up worldwide sales rights to Jaime Chavarri’s upcoming comedy, “La Manzana de Oro” (“The Golden Apple”).In a separate deal, Spanish pubcaster RTVE has clinched free TV rights for Spain.Produced by Mario Real and Enrique González Khun at the fledgling La Pirueta Films, “La Manzana de Oro” marks the comeback of one of Spain’s great directors of the last half century after his triple Goya-winning 2005 biopic “Camarón: When Flamenco Became Legend.”Chavarri is best-known for sophisticated arthouse dramas “The Disenchantment,”  “To an Unknown God” and “Dedicated to…,” produced by Elias Querejeta, as well as smash hits “Bicycles Are for the Summer” and “The Things of Love.” “We are indeed blessed to be working with a masterful director like Jaime Chavarri whose films have touched the hearts of audiences and critics worldwide,” said FilmSharks’ Guido Rud.Based on prize-winning novel “Ávidas Pretensiones” by Fernando Aramburu, the film begins with the arrival of an unexpected guest who disrupts an annual conference of poets at a remote convent.“La Manzana de Oro” will “complete an unplanned trilogy about contemporary Spanish poets,” Chavarrri explained, offering “a general reflection, good-humored and somewhat melancholic.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente The estate of celebrated Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and Miami-based BTF Media have partnered to produce a TV series based on the life and works of Kahlo.Kahlo has been the subject of a slew of multiple films, documentaries and shorts. She was most famously portrayed in Julie Taymor’s Oscar-winning 2002 biopic “Frida,” starring Salma Hayek who garnered a best actress nomination for her portrayal of the artist.Kahlo’s family, represented by Frida Kahlo Management has partnered with BTF Media founders Ricardo Coeto and Francisco Cordero and with Hector Martinez, co-executive producer to co-produce the series inspired by the life of the iconic artist.According to Mara Romeo Kahlo, the painter’s great-niece, “the series seeks to portray Frida as she has never been seen before.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Jorge Ramos, the star anchor and Emmy-winning journalist of U.S. Hispanic giant Univision for decades, will host a new celebrity interview program on ViX, the fledgling AVOD streaming service launched by TelevisaUnivision, the media juggernaut formed by the merger of Mexico’s Televisa and Univision early this year.“Algo Personal con Jorge Ramos” (“Something Personal with Jorge Ramos”) is set to bow Sunday April 24 at 10 p.m.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The Málaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) wrapped Thursday, March 25 with a slew of awards parceled out to productions from across Spain and Latin America. Several projects by women filmmakers dominated the event, which kicked off on March 21.Spanish documentarian Carla Subirana’s fiction feature debut, “Sica” made off with three private-sector plaudits, including the Aracne post-production cash prize of €20,000 ($22,000) as well as the REC and Abycine awards, comprising participation in their respective industry labs.Backed by Alba Sotorra’s Cinema Productions, Galician firm Miramira, Spanish pubcaster TVE and Catalonia’s TVC, the coming-of-age drama turns on 13-year-old Sica who waits by the Costa da Morte, a Galician fishing shoreline, for the sea to give up the body of her fisherman father who perished at sea. Other Work in Progress (WIP) awards went to documentary “Of Books and Women,” by María Elorza of Spain and “Nothing” (a working title) by Brazil’s Adriana Guimaraes.“Of Books and Women” offers a glimpse of various women and their relationships to books, one keeps a Franciscan library in a junk room, the other nearly breaks her finger on her bookshop shelves.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Spanish filmmaker Roberto Perez Toledo’s swan song, “Places Where We’ve Never Been” (“Lugares a los que nunca hemos ido”), will screen in the Zonazine section of the Malaga Film Festival just weeks after the filmmaker’s demise.The 25th Malaga Film Festival runs March 18-27. Variety has been given exclusive access to a clip of his film, which consists of five unrelated but thematically similar stories revolving around five couples.Produced by Deep Entertainment, “Places…” presents five stories: Among them is that of Elena whose dinner order is delivered by a man who turns out to be an old flame.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Dominican filmmaker Jose Maria Cabral has shared the trailer to his eighth feature, “Parsley,” with Variety ahead of its world premiere at the Miami Int’l Film Festival.New York-based Visit Films is handling world sales rights on the drama.As in his Sundance title “Woodpeckers” (“Carpinteros”) and his more recent films, Cabral trains his lens on the marginalized in his country. “Parsley” (“Perejil”) is based on the 1937 Perejil Massacre when Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the execution of Haitian communities on the country’s border with Haiti.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Karla Souza and Dani Rovira, two of the foremost Hispanic actors with comedic chops, have joined the upcoming musical comedy, “Voy a pasarmelo bien” (“I’m Going to Have a Good Time”), produced by Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP), El Estudio and Spanish pop-rock band, Hombres G.Mexico City-born Souza has starred in three of Mexico’s top-grossing pics: “Nosotros Los Nobles,” “Instructions Not Included” and “Que Culpa Tiene el Niño.” Her TV credits include ABC comedy series “Home Economics” and “How to Get Away with Murder.”Spanish actor-comic Rovira made his big screen debut with Spanish blockbuster comedy “Spanish Affair” and has starred in the 2018 SPIP romcom “Miamor Perdido,” among others. The film is inspired by the music of the iconic band Hombres G, which rose to prominence in the ‘80s with their Beatles and British new wave-influenced music. Based in Madrid, Hombres G have published 12 studio albums to date and sold more than 20 million records internationally.

Anna Marie de la Fuente ZDF Enterprises, to be rebranded ZDF Studios in April, has snagged worldwide distribution rights to the topical post-WWII dramatic series “Between Two Worlds” (“Ein Hauch Von Amerika”).Skein is set in a fictional German town in the ’50s where a robust U.S. military presence is impacting the lives of its people, in particular the two young friends Marie and Erika, whose relationships with their family, community and each other are put to the test by the presence of a U.S.

Anna Marie de la Fuente New York and L.A.-based indie distributor 1091 Pictures, known for such hit releases as Taika Waititi’s “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” Spirit Awards winner “Christine” and knockout comedy “The Overnight,” has swooped on rights to all English-speaking territories for psychedelic thriller “To the Moon.” The drama, sold by Yellow Veil Pictures, marks the directorial debut of actor Scott Friend (“The Dark End of the Street”), who also wrote and plays a lead role in it.The film, which bows its first poster in Variety, premiered last year at the online film festival Nightstream, and was in selection at the 2020 U.S. in Progress industry showcase organized by Wroclaw’s American Film Festival, which later hosted the film’s international premiere.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The producers of Sundance world dramatic competition entry “Utama,” Bolivia’s Alma Films and Uruguay’s LaMayorCine, have re-teamed for “Los Abrazos” (“The Embrace”), the sixth fiction feature of Marcos Loayza.The father of “Utama” director Alejandro Loayza Grisi and a lauded filmmaker in Bolivia, Loayza’s credits include his career-launching 1995 drama “A Question of Faith” (“Cuestion de Fe),” adventure pic “Averno” and the docu series “Planet Bolivia” where his son served as DP.“’Los Abrazos’ is in quite an advanced phase and we hope to shoot it by the end of this year or early next,” said Federico Moreira of LaMayorCine who is hoping to enlist an Argentine co-producer for the drama which they expect to film on location in Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina. Alejandro Loayza Grisi will likely serve as DP.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Amanda Kramer’s ‘Give Me Pity!’ starring Sophie von Haselberg, is bowing a teaser trailer ahead of its Rotterdam world premiere where the pic closes the event’s Filmmakers in Focus section on Jan. 29.Variety nabbed an exclusive first look at the teaser, courtesy of Alief, which snapped up the global sales rights to the pic in early January.Following its world premiere, the U.K.-French sales agent, distribution and production company will present the film at the Berlinale’s online European Film Market for its market debut in February.“Give Me Pity!” pivots on Variety TV show host Sissy St.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Colombian director Jaime Osorio Márquez, who served as creator, director and showrunner on HBO Max’s first Colombian series, “A Thousand Fangs” (“Mil Colmillos”), chose to die by assisted suicide on Friday in Colombia, where euthanasia is legal. He was 46.He had beaten back an aggressive kidney cancer in 2009 and again in 2012, when it had returned and metastasized.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In Panama to shoot “The Stars at Noon,” French auteur Claire Denis (“Beau Travail,” “High Life”) spoke at an IFF Panama fest panel about shooting the film in Panama and her hallmark “instinctive” filmmaking.With her were her two male actors, lead Joe Alwyn (“The Favorite”) and rising Panamanian thesp and former wrestler Nick Romano (“Kimura”), who plays a key secondary role.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Giancarlo Nasi’s Quijote Films, one of the lead producers of Chile’s current Oscar entry “White on White,” has closed a co-production deal with France’s Les Valseurs at the American Film Market for “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” the first feature from Diego Cespedes, the Cannes Festival’s 2018 Cinefondation first prize winner.Mexico’s Varios Lobos, led by Pablo Zimbron, is also a co-producer.In addition, the pact includes the financing and co-production of a short film by Cespedes, with a budget that exceeds $116,000 (€100,000), making it one the most expensive short films to be ever made in Chile’s cinematic history.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Mexico City-based Endemol Shine Boomdog has tapped former Argos Media Group chief creative officer Jerry Rodriguez as their new head of scripted content and senior VP.Rodriguez, an Emmy-winning TV producer and director of comedy and drama programming, had been with Argos since 1999 where he held various positions of responsibility through the years.His appointment signals Endemol Shine Boomdog’s steadfast commitment to produce more fiction content in the years to come.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based Bikini Films, led by Edson Sidonie, has boarded “Ofelia,” the sophomore pic of Juan Pablo Felix whose acclaimed feature debut “Karnawal” won best direction at last year’s Guadalajara fest and best Ibero-American film at the Malaga Film Festival in June.France’s Luz Verde has also come on board as a producer.“Ofelia” has been selected to participate in Ibermedia’s Ibero-American Project Development Course currently taking place in Madrid. The political drama, set in 2009 Argentina during the tenure of controversial president Cristina Kirchner, exposes the hypocrisies of the Argentine bourgeoisie and the ideological rift in which the country found itself.

Anna Marie de la Fuente With Guatemala as this year’s guest country of honor at the 36th Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG), the festival will be screening more than a dozen films from this tiny Central American country, including one of its recent standouts, Justin Lerner’s “Cadejo Blanco.” The female-driven crime drama stages its world premiere Oct. 3 at the fest where it competes in the official Ibero-American Features section.Although born in Boston, Lerner’s ties with Guatemala run deep, where he even proposed to his French-American wife at the edge of a volcano.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The idea for the documentary “Reinventing Mirazur,” which follows Argentine Chef Mauro Colagreco and the profound transformation he and his three-Michelin star restaurant Mirazur undergo, began in faraway Japan where French filmmakers Franck Ribière and Vérane Frediani met him while he participated in the Cook Japan event organized by restaurateur Yuji Shimoyama.Colagreco was among the 32 chefs invited from all over the world by Shimoyama to display their cooking expertise to Japan, under one condition, to use only Japanese produce. The idea was to make a short film but it expanded to a feature-length format when Colagreco invited them to his restaurant in France to continue shooting him.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based sales and production company FilmSharks International has scored a number of deals with South Korea, France and Italy in recent days.South Korean indie film distributor Bluelable Pictures picked up all rights to erotic thriller “Bandit Love” and plans a wide theatrical release.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based sales and production company FilmSharks International has snatched world sales rights to Patagonik title “Cato,” outside of Latin America, which Disney’s Star Distribution will handle. The Walt Disney Company owns a significant stake in the Patagonik Film Group.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Lorenzo Vigas, who made film festival history by being the first Venezuelan-born filmmaker to snag the Venice Golden Lion in 2015, is back on the Lido with “The Box” (“La Caja”), the final part of a trilogy that began with his Cannes Critics’ Week short “Elephants Never Forget” and continued with his Venice-winning feature debut, “From Afar.”A resident of Mexico since 2001, Vigas was watching the news on TV about people recovering the bodies of their lost relatives from mass graves when the idea for “The Box” came to him.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Rio de Janeiro-based Habanero Film Sales has licensed  U.S.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buenos Aires-based Film Sharks Int’l. has sold the streaming rights to Spanish sci-fi dystopian comedy “Some Time Later” (“Tiempo Despues”) to U.S.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Los Angeles and Paris-based Cinema Management Group (CMG) has closed major sales to Peruvian-Dutch animated feature “Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon” ahead of its world premiere at this week’s 60th Annecy International Animation Film Festival.Signature Entertainment has snapped up rights to the toon for the U.K. and Ireland while Rialto Distribution has picked up rights for Australia & New Zealand.