Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz May Reunite for Madrid Drama — Report

Tyler Hersko
·2 min read

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Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar is likely teaming up with longtime collaborator Penélope Cruz for a new film about motherhood tentatively scheduled to hit theaters in late 2021.

Variety reports that the duo are likely teaming up on “Madres paralelas,” with pre-production set to begin in October. The film is scheduled to shoot in February 2021, Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro’s brother and producer, told Variety.

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Per the original source, “Madres paralelas” centers on two mothers who give birth on the same day. The film will follow their lives over their first two years of raising their children.

While the entertainment industry’s production shutdowns have impacted many upcoming films, Almodóvar has spent the last three months finishing his screenplay. The film will reportedly be made on a modest budget.

Like most of Almodóvar’s films, “Madres paralelas” will be a Spanish-language film and will shoot at least partially in Madrid. Pedro told the publication that though no formal contract has been set with Cruz she has read and liked the screenplay. Cruz has appeared in a wide range of the director’s films, including the widely-praised “All About My Mother” and “Volver.”

Almodóvar’s filmography has long been praised by critics. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn lauded the director’s latest film, 2019’s “Pain and Glory,” as masterful in his A- review.

“Across 30-plus years of filmmaking, Pedro Almodóvar has accrued the auteurist equivalence of a god, and his distinctive romantic whimsy carries such weight that the tagline ‘a film by Almodóvar’ conveys more brand than vision,” Kohn said in his review of the film. “‘Pain and Glory,’ the filmmaker’s best and most personal movie in years, brings him back to mortal terrain. A grounded melancholic rumination on aging and artistic intent steeped in the aging director’s own experiences, it may be the closest Almodóvar comes to crafting a memoir in the medium he knows best.”

Almodóvar has been busy working on other projects outside “Madres paralelas.” The director is scheduled to begin shooting a short Tilda Swinton-led adaption of Jean Cocteau’s one-act play “The Human Voice,” which marks Almodóvar’s first English-language project, in two weeks.

Check out Variety’s full report on “Madres paralelas” here.

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