Spain’s Nadie es Perfecto Ramps Up Production, Looks to Mexico (EXCLUSIVE)
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A producer on one of the highest-grossing of Spanish films in the last decade, Alex de la Iglesia’s “Perfect Strangers,” Madrid-based Nadie es Perfecto is ramping up production as it rebrands and, following the hire of ex-Netflix exec Juan Mayne, focuses on broadening its bridges with Mexico and Latin America.
In one move, Christopher Hool at Mexico’s SDB Films (“The Deal,” “Doblemente Embarazada”) has boarded the NEP-produced ”Locomía,” directed by Kike Maillo, and “La Navidad está en sus manos,” from Joaquín Mazón, produced by Bowfinger International Pictures, Esto También Pasará and Nadie es Perfecto and associate produced by AF Films.
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NEP also adapted Mexican hit series “El Juego de la Llaves,” a property of Corazón Films, for Spain, producing with Warner Bros. and local broadcaster Atresmedia.
The company is rebranding as Nadie es Perfecto+. “We aim to make more films, be present in more series and open up to her formats, and we’re already advancing on a brace of titles,” Nadie es Perfecto founder Kiko Martínez told Variety.
For Martínez, the incorporation of Juan [Mayne] “connects us with the talent he has worked with not only in Spain but Latin America and the U.S., which will allow us to grow in both areas.”
Nadie es Perfecto is in good company, linking with other Spanish companies with a presence in México and Latin America, a combination which allows partners to raise production standards to notable levels.
Originated at NEP, “La Navidad en sus manos” is produced with one of the most powerful independent producers in Spain, Bowfinger Intl. Pictures, headed by María Luisa Gutiérrez and Santiago Segura and also one of Spain’s most longterm producers with Latin America, and with Alvaro Ariza’s Esto También Pasará.
Producing last year both Chus Gutiérrez’s “Sin ti no puedo” and “Con los años” with Hool’s Mexico-based SDB Films, in the case of “La Navidad en sus manos,” ETP brought SDB onto the project, while Frank Ariza at AF Films, who co-wrote “Sin ti no puedo” and directed “Con los años,” has come on board as an associate producer.
Starring Santiago Segura, ranking with Eugenio Dérbez as the biggest comedy force in the Spanish-speaking world, “La Navidad en sus manos” is a Christmas movie, a building but still not fully established phenomenon in Spain.
Written by Daniel Monedero and Fran Arnal, scribes on Netflix’s “1000 km de la Navidad,” “La Navidad en sus manos” turns on middle-aged man encharged to save Christmas after Santa Claus (Segura) suffers an accident which has him in need of psychiatric counselling.
Positioned as a movie which will see a first-window release in cinema theaters and slated to shoot from mid-November, “La Navidad” marks the latest movie from Mazón who recently bowed “La vida padre” and has directed episodes of iconic Spanish series such as “Cuerpo de élite” “Allí abajo” and “Con el culo al aire.”
Targeting kids and adults – Mazón says he is an adult who has drunk deeply at the well of American aventure movies such as “The Goonies” – “La Navidad en sus manos” will be an “highly entertaining film and visually ambitious, which will help it to travel,” Mazón said.
Directed by Kike Maillo – who burst onto the scene with his first feature, 2011 Venice Festival hit “Eva” with Daniel Brühl as a robot engineer – “Locomía” stars Jaime Llorente, (“Money Heist,” “Elite,” “Prison 77”), Alberto Ammann (“Narcos, Mexico,” “The Year of Fury”) and Alejandro Speitzer (“Dark Desire,” “Someone Has to Die”).
It weighs in as a biopic of a band, Loco Mía, which was as successful as it was singular as well as being Spain’s first boys band, said Maíllo. Made up of fashion designers who worked as gogo dancers in Ibiza, Loco Mía’s hallmark was its dancing while waiving huge fans.
Backed by Netflix and Atresmedia, “the biopic is a portrait of Spain in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, an epoch of new freedoms at multiple levels: Nudity in films, Madrid’s movida, sexual liberty and drugs, a compulsive reaction to a very closed prior era with a castrating Catholic culture,” said Mailló.
“The film talks about ambition, youth, nightlife, self-discovery, the freshness of a generation which embraced their identities without any hesitation,” he added.
Set to go into production in March. much of the film takes place in Ibiza, beginning with a party thrown by Freddie Mercury, Mailló said calling the film a “dynamic musical comedy” targeting YA audiences.
Nadie es Perfecto’s expansion reflects a new streaming platform age. “20 years ago, sales agents sold territory by territory. Now we can reach a larger public more easily,” Martínez reflected.
“Before, for films to travel, they had to be made in English. Now that doesn’t matter so much. The ambition of a project is more important, and the Spanish-language market allows us to be more ambitious.”
A larger ambition also means opening up to international co-production, especially with the Spanish-speaking world’s other big film-TV hub, Mexico.
“We will take advantage of the relations we have in Mexico, which is the gateway to the U.S., to make more co-productions with Latin America and emerging operators on the other side of the Atlantic which are targeting Mexico,” Martínez announced.
Nadie es Perfecto is also targeting Europe’s underserved kids and family market and plowing into genre, another growth film-TV line.
Teaming as a producer on movies directed by Alex de la Iglesia movies – 2017’s “El Bar” and smash hit “Perfectos Desconocidos” – Nadie es Perfecto also backed a brace of De la Iglesia productions such as Eduardo Casanova’s eye-catching debut feature “Skins” (“Pieles”).
Still pushing into horror, Nadie es Perfecto has produced horror comedy “Fenómenas,” directed by Carlos Therón and inspired by the famous paranormal group Hepta, led by father Pilón.
The film stars Belen Rueda, Toni Acosta and Gracia Olayo as members of Hepta group and Emilio Gutiérrez Caba as father Pilón.
“We will continue down this road. Horror connects with young people, we have great precedents in Spain,” Martinez said.
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