‘La Favorita 1922,’ ‘El Marqués,’ ‘Detective Romi’ Give Mediaset’s Mediterráneo Its Strongest Mipcom Lineup in Years
One of Spain’s leading export powers, Mediterráneo, the film-TV international distribution arm of leading broadcast network Mediaset Espa?a, has hit Mipcom with one of its strongest slates in recent years.
This is led by “La Favorita 1922,” its first collaboration with Bambú Producciones, the Studiocanal-owned production house behind titles that have helped revolutionize Spanish scripted, such as “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and daily series “The Vow.”
More from Variety
Also brought to market are “Detective Romi” and “El Marqués” as Mediterráneo hit several growth axes in Spain and abroad: Modern melodramas with ultra-high production values (“La Favorita”), “lighter” procedurals and true-event-based crime stories. In the case of the latter, Mediterráneo is exploiting larger Spanish trends. According to The Wit, Spain is the number two country in Europe for fiction based on true events.
Mediterráneo also houses companies owned or part-owned by Mediaset Espa?a such as Telecinco Cinema, whose credits include “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Impossible,” and Aitor Gabilondo’s Alea Media, behind “Patria,” and now Isabel Allende adaptation “A Long Petal of the Sea,” with Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula.
On the eve of Mipcom, Mediterráneo head Ghislain Barrois, also Mediaset Espa?a director of sales and acquisitions, drilled down on its production and sales strategy, including a crucial alliance with Prime Video on select titles.
“It’s nearly impossible nowadays to produce a service without some kind of collaboration with a platform,” Barrois says. “That can be either a first-window basis [as it is with Prime]or a case where we do the promotion and then pass it on to the platform.”
For platforms, Spain is an increasingly attractive territory to look for new and catalog content. According to a recent Ampere study, streamers are relying increasingly on “safe” global languages like English and Spanish for new commissions and acquisitions while cutting back shows in other languages.
Mediterraneo’s platform interplay, where it may have a first TV window in Spain and a second window international rights abroad, is significant as some titles go on to top streamers rankings. “Wrong Side of the Tracks” Season 3, for example, hit No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English TV series charts earlier this year over Feb. 26-March 3.
“We choose the best production company for each of our shows,” the executive explained of Mediterráneo’s curatorial approach. “A key element to our model is also promotion. We’ve been doing that for a long time in cinema, and now we plan on doing the same with our series. Producing is often the easiest part while selling it in a crowded environment becomes the real challenge. We are very conscious of curating a lineup and caring for it far beyond simply producing.”
Below, we take a closer look at Mediterráneo’s Mipcom lineup.
“La Favorita 1922”
Set in Madrid, “La Favorita 1922” follows Seville’s Marquise Elena de Valmonte, who battles to turn an abandoned restaurant into the capital’s finest eating establishment. “Love, intrigue, humor and a touch of thriller come together in a carefully crafted production,” says Ramón Campos, head of Bambú Producciones.
“It’s superbly produced with incredible sets,” Barrois says. “At one of our first meetings, I asked about production, and they brought me a book that was like the Yellow Pages, like 500 pages thick with every blueprint and every set detail outlined.”
“Detective Romi”
In “Detective Romi,” Romina Goitia, a hearing-impaired private detective, investigates the long-ago death of her father, which she suspects to be murder. The series was created by Iker Azkoitia, a writer on Netflix’s mega-hit “élite” and directed by Inés París (“The Barrier”).
“Romi’s emotional, visual, and sound universe is as unique as its protagonist: a young, deaf girl who works as a detective,” says París. “What a beautiful challenge for a director! Investigation, passion, intrigue, and another way of seeing and feeling the world. What more could one ask for?”
“El Marqués”
Produced with Unicorn Content, “El Marqués” is based on a true story from 1975 when five workers were killed on the estate of a wealthy family. Despite several popular theories about the deaths, the killer was never identified. Directed by Ignacio del Moral and Bego?a álvarez, the Prime Video series dives into details that divided a community and exposed profound corruption among the local elite.
“Production was difficult from a creative standpoint because the show has so many different intersecting storylines, but it worked out beautifully in the end,” says Barrois, who emphasizes, “The results for that one have been extremely strong in Spain.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
