The Mediapro Studio Heads to the Sahara for ‘The Head’ Season 3 as CEO Laura Fernandez Espeso Pinpoints Growth Strategies at Mipcom Keynote (EXCLUSIVE)

John Hopewell and Liza Foreman
·6 min read
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The Mediapro Studio will shoot from November Season 3 of “The Head,” its biggest international hit, filming in the Sahara Desert with John Lynch (“The Fall”) and  Katharine O’Donnelly (“Mary Queen of Scots), attached once more to star.

Olivia Morris also returns to her role as Rachel Russo, the morally conscionable daughter of ambition-crazed biologist Arthur Wilde, played by Lynch.

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“The Head” Season 1 took place at an Antarctic research station cut off in winter, Season 2 on a hulking freighter at mid-Pacific’s Point Nemo, the most distant place on earth from nearest land.

“The locations for this series have been a fundamental part of the show itself, always in an inaccessible place,” Laura Fernández Espeso, The Mediapro Studio CEO, told Variety before talking at a Mipcom Media Mastermind Keynote on Tuesday.

“This time we’ll be shooting in the desert: ‘The Head 3’ will take place in an unknown place in the Sahara desert, in an unusual place that most people never heard of. A land with no owner. A land where there is no law. The perfect location for a risky experiment with human subjects,” she added.

“The Head” Season 3 will film in Tenerife where TMS also shot Season 1 and Season 2, and at locations in Almeria, southern Spain, for exteriors. Interiors lens in Madrid.

TMS head of international development Ran Tellem also returns as series showrunner, as does Jorge Dorado as director. An ever more international writers’ room headed by Tellem takes in writing duo Teresa de Pelegrí (Spain) and Dominic Harari (U.K.), whose credits include “Seres queridos” and “Amor en su punto,” Rachel Kilfeather (U.K, “Vikings· Season 3: Valhalla,” “Red Rock”), Martine Moore (U.S., “Bwitches”) and Pearse Lehane (Ireland, “Doctor Who Confidential”).

Announcement of “The Head” Season 3 came, aptly enough, in a keynote in which Fernández Espeso stressed a drive into English-language content and production in the U.S. as one of its key growth ambitions.

Mediapro has been producing English-language films for years, Fernández Espeso noted, citing Woody Allen productions and titles by Isabel Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”) and Fernando León de Aranoa (“A Perfect Day”). It also co-produced Paolo Sorrentino “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope,” and backed “Hunting Ana Bravo,” starring Kate del Castillo.

With “The Young Poe,” a new production in development led by Ran Tellem, “we have very ambitious plans in the U.S.. We want to increase our speed of implementation: We are investing in development and in growing our team,” Fernández Espeso said.

“Acquisitions in the U.S. are strategic – here I’m talking about books, articles, adaptations and finished content,” where TMS would board third party productions,” Fernández Espeso told Variety.

Movie “Hunting Ana Bravo,” a survival action thriller picked up by Amazon’s Prime Video, was produced by Erik Barmack’s Wild Sheep Content, in which TMS has an equity participation.

Iosi, the Regretful Spy
Iosi, the Regretful Spy

Another way forward for The Mediapro Studio is “constantly incorporating talent, direct talent through exclusive and non-exclusive deals and indirect talent through the acquisition of companies,” said Fernández Espeso, pointing to the cases of Oficina Burman, led by filmmaker-TV showrunner Daniel Burman whose “Iosi, the Regretful Spy” drops a Season 2 on Prime Video later this month, and in 2020, incorporation of Spain’s premier comedy group El Terrat and Wild Sheep Content, which has had 16 projects greenlit in 11 different markets, working in France, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Japan, India and the U.S., Barmack said at Iberseries & Platino Industria.

In its latest move, The Mediapro Studio has acquired Cimarrón, a producer and production services company based out of Uruguay, Argentina and Mexico. “They complement our position in Latin America,” Fernández Espeso said.

As a growth strategy, The Mediapro Studio will also continue to power into co-production, she commented.

On case to point is Moonlyon, the production company TMS created with Penélope Cruz, which already has several productions in development. Moonlyon is co-producing “The Days of Abandonment” by Elena Ferrante,” “a project starring Penélope Cruz which she has dreamed about for years,” to be directed by Isabel Coixet. 

Under its joint venture with Turkish major player Medyapim, aimed at making Spanish-language TV series, TMS now has its first development with a Spanish free TV station to produce an adaptation of the successful series “Feriha’s Secret,” Fernández Espeso said, in further news to come out of the keynote.

“Mediapro and the Studio have always grown with alliances,” she said. “They allow us to grow more quickly and better, because also through them you can incorporate very good talent which also improves the flow of creativity.”

Of unscripted and factual, “we’re leaders in Spain but we still have a lot of room to grow internationally. We must continue to set alliances with creators of non-fiction formats,” Fernández noted.

“Apart from the partnership with Be Entertainment we’re working on other very important alliances to be announced soon,” she announced.

In fiction, TMS produces around 20 series annually, taking in originals and co-productions in Spanish and English. “We are growing more and more each year,” she said.

Big upcoming titles include “Mano de hierro” for Netflix, a “hugely ambitious project,” said Fernández, directed by Lluís Quilez, shot in locations such as the port of Barcelona with a “dream-come-true” casting of Jaime Llorente, Eduard Fernandez, Chino Darín, Natalia de Molina, Sergi López, Enric Auquer). New projects will soon be announced with Diego San José and Borja Cobeaga, she promised.

Of priorities, “one of our main priorities is trust,” she said. “The trust that we generate in our clients has been key in our development and growth, listening a lot to know their needs to also understand how they think.”

Others are new talent, movies, “content around the sports area,” literary IPs and “last, but definitely not least, diversity,” she said.

Movies mean both theatrical and direct to platform, Fernández Espeso said. “Demand for films direct to platforms has also increased and in that sense, we’ll be announcing several new projects very soon.”

The Mediapro Studio has a Mike Leigh movie in post-production.

“Also, we have received a lot of nominations and awards in recognition of diversity,” said Fernández Espeso.  “Victoria Small,” “a very open reflection on motherhood,” was nominated for the Emmys,” she also observed, citing TMS productions “Ser o no ser,” about the physical and emotional changes of a trans student, and “Queer You Are,” inspired by the childhood of the creator Bob Pop, and his search for identity.

“We have also produced ‘Express,’ starring a woman in a role that years ago would have only been for men, or shows that talk about women ahead of their time, like ‘Las Pelotaris 1926,’” Fernández Espeso said proudly.

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