Shooting in Spain: DANNY GLOVER and ROBERT ENGLUND

Robert Englund

The American actors Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, Dreamgirls, The Color Purple) and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elmstreet, V, The Final Battle) have recently been working in Spain. In spite of their huge careers as both actors and directors they are mostly known for the popular characters of Roger Murtaugh from the blockbuster "Lethal Weapon" (Glover) and of the mythic Freddy Krueger from "Nightmare on Elm Street" or as Willie in "V" (Englund). Well, now these two big actors are lending their talent to the Spanish Film Industry by shooting together "I Want to Be a Soldier", a Spanish production shot in English and directed by the Catalan director Christian Molina. The film was opened in Spain first at the Sitges Film Festival on the 12th of October and officially in Madrid the 21st of October. 

Danny Glover

The movie supported by the Spanish Minor's Ombudsman tells the story of a 10 year-old American boy who is influenced by a problematic familiar situation and at the same time is distracted by the negative sides of the new technologies and the influence of the Mass Media.  The kid, Alex ( Fergus Riordan) develops an obsession for the war games and for the idea of becoming a soldier, as he is seduced by an imaginary military friend inviting him to experience violence and destruction. A school psychologist (Robert Englund) tries to help the child to get out of the situation by convincing his reluctant parents (Jo Kelly, Andrew Tarbet) about the need of putting and defining the limits of what a child can do and what not. In spite of their will to make their child follow the path of the correct behavior and goodness, Alex's parents have their own problems and do not always see the minor's crisis until it explodes.

The Premiere of the movie was held in Madrid on Wednesday 19th of October with the presence of, in addition to Danny Glover and Robert Englund, the director Christian Molina, the actors Fergus Riordan, Cassandra Gava, Valeria Marini and Ben Temple.

Valeria Marini, Robert Englund and Ben Temple

All of them had only beautiful and thankful words for the director, the crew and the audience. The Premiere was also supported by many other  Spanish professionals.

According to Danny Glover's contribution to this film as the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the movie is a brilliant reflection about  the Mass media impact on our children's lives and about the consequences of the unlimited and uncontrolled use of the new technologies in young people. In fact Glover's character in the film as the school principal is the narrator of an important part of the message the movie wants to send.

Emilia Uutinen and Danny Glover

In the photo Danny Glover has just been enjoying the premiere of the film in the Capitol Cinema of Madrid. Next to him the Finnish actress Emilia Uutinen, who is working now in  tv and films in Spain, also attended the event.

The participation of Robert Englund in "I want to be a Soldier"is equally magnificent. The actor who had actually worked in a Spanish production before shooting "Killer Tongue"in 1996 with Alberto Sciamma, plays with absolute conviction the role of the school psychologist worried about the young child.

R.Englund, Ben Temple, Fergus Riordan and Ch.Molina

It is worth highlighting also the characters of the young boy played by Fergus Riordan, the character of the mother played by an amazing Jo Kelly, the kid's father played by Andrew Tarbet, the part of the imaginary friend of the young boy played by Ben Temple and the two professors played by Cassandra Gava and Valeria Marini.

Danny Glover speaks to the audience with Cassandra Gava.

We hope to see these great actors work again soon in the Spanish Film Industry and will be following their interesting careers as actors, filmmakers or activists. 

We are sure the kind of collaborations by artists like Robert Englund or Danny Glover can only enrich the European film panorama, and together with brilliant directors like Christian Molina, can contribute to the increase of a new kind of universal filmmaking.

SITGES international Fantastic Film Festival 2011

 

The 44th edition of the oldest and one of most important fantastic genre film festivals SITGES took place in the Spanish Catalonia between the 6th and the 16th of October 2011.

Ryoo Seung-wan

 The traditional festival awarded this year as the Best Film "Red State" by Kevin Smith, awarding also the director Na Hong-jin for his film "The Yellow Sea" and the actors  Brit Marling for "Another Earth" and Michael Parks for "Red State".

Bryan Singer

The Special Jury Prize went to Joe Cornish for his "Attack the Block",

the Best Screenplay for Lucky Mckee and Jack Ketchum for "The Woman" and the Best Cinematography for Markus Förderer and Tim Fehlbaum for "Hell".

The Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan won the Casa Asia Award for his movie "The Unjust" and 

the Grang Honorary Prize of this traditional festival went to the American producer and director Bryan Singer. 

Actors Daniel Brúhl, Alberto Amman, Lluis Homar from " Eva" 

The "Máquina del Temps" Prizes (Time Machine) went to Jaume Balagueró, Michael Biehn, Ching Siu-Tung and Michael Ironside.

The María Honorary Prizes went to Bigas Luna,  Xavier Pérez, Mar Targarona, Caroline Williams, Gonzalo Suárez and Pedro Olea. The Nosferatu Prize was given to Luigi Cozzi.

The Spanish representation at this year's Sitges festival includes the opening movie "Eva" by Kike Maillo, a science fiction story starring Daniel Brühl.

American visitors at the Sitges Festival: the young actor Booboo Stewart and the screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg at the photocall.

San Sebastián International Film Festival 2011

The 59th edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival took place between the 16th and the 24th of September 2011. As every year, this traditional and prestigious Spanish Film Festival supported Spanish, Latin American and Basque Cinema sections in it's program, in addition to the international Official Selection.

Glenn Close with the Donosti Award

This year  the festival decided to honour the American actress Glenn Close by asigning her the Donostia lifetime achievement award. The actress came to collect the award as well as she presented her newest film "Albert Nobbs" that was opened in Europe in this year's San Sebastian Festival.

Los Pasos Dobles crew with Isaki Lacuesta

The winner of the Golden Shell this year in the Official Section was the Spanish  film "Los Pasos Dobles" (The Double Steps) by Isaki Lacuesta, where as the Special Jury Prize went to the French film "Skylab" by Julie Delpy. The Jury of the official selection presided by Frances McNormand decided to asign the Silver Shell for Best Director to the greek Filippos Tsitos, and the actors' awards went to Antonis Kafetzopoulos and María León for Benito Zambrano's "The Sleeping Voice". The Prize for the Best Cinematography was won by Ulf Brantas and the Best Screenplay by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

The rest of the Spanish presentation in the Official Selection "No Rest for the Wicked" by Enrique Urbizu or "The Intruders" by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo didn't receive prizes, although, according to the audience's reactions it seems the two movies are really good.

Enrique Urbizu

As far as the Spanish and Basque film selections are concerned I would distinguish Mateo Gil's "Blackthorn", starring Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier and Nicolak Coster-Waldau and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's "Primos"(Cousinhood) starring Quim Gutiérrez, Raúl Arévalo, Adrián Lastra, Inma Cuesta, Antonio de la Torre in the Made in Spain- section. From the basque Zinemira- section we liked Alberto Gorritiberea's "The Stone" (Arriya, la Piedra) starring Iban Garate, Begoña Maestre, Sara Casanovas and Ramón Agirre.

As every year the San Sebastian Festival had a friendly and festive atmosphere. According to the new festival director José Luis Rebordinos, the intention of the Festival this year was to magnify the presence of the international film industry and press.
In fact the festival seeks an interactive approach between the filmmakers and the audience.
After every showing actors and directors answer the questions asked by the spectators.

In the photo the Finnish actress Emilia Uutinen speaking with Esteban & J. Miguel Ibarretxe.

We look forward to participating again next year in this traditional and cosy festival which, together with the Cannes Festival, has become a sort of a rundown of the Spanish film tendencies of the year.

Shooting in Spain: MELANIE GRIFFITH

The Academy Award nominated and Golden Globe awarded actress for "Working Girl", Melanie Griffith will soon shoot in Spain. Apparently she has joined the cast of "At 2:15" together with Nick Nolte, Angela Molina, Adrien Paul, Miguel Ángel Tobías and Fernando Guillén Cuervo. The film will be the debut feature of the young director María De Kannon Clé, who is also the scriptwriter of this piece that seems to be a small art-house type film with a good script. The film is supported by the Madrid Film Commission and will be shot entirely in the Spanish capital on October 2011.

Griffith will play the character of a multimilloinaire woman who is Nick Nolte's wife in a script that tells the story of various strangers meeting each other in the traffic lights of Madrid.

The budget of this movie will be around 3 millions of euros producing Maria De Kannon Clé, Miguel Ángel Tobías and Adrien Paul together with Accamedia, Filmblips UK an Hungarian Forma Films.

Melanie Griffith has also participated in two animation productions that are currently in production; her voice can be heard in Ben Stassen’s animation film "Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage" and in Manuel Sicilia’s "The Scales And The Sword".

We look forward to following the career of this beautiful actress who is lenting her talent to the Spanish film industry. As we have always been huge fans of hers, it's a real pleasure to hear she will be working in Spain.