MADRID — Unveiling its highest-profile Spanish original film to date, Netflix announced on Tuesday that Spanish actors Javier Gutiérrez and Mario Casas will star together for the first time in “Hogar.”
Shooting in Barcelona, “Hogar” has initiated production and will premiere only on Netflix in 2020.
“Hogar” is directed by Spanish brothers Alex and David Pastor, who have carved a reputation for upscale genre films or thrillers, working with leading U.S. and Spanish companies such as Paramount Pictures (“Carriers”) and Morena Films (“The Last Days”). It is produced by Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, one of Spain’s most internationally-minded production houses whose credits include the Damien Chazelle-written “Grand Piano” and Rodrigo Cortes’ “Red Lights,” with Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro. “Hogar” marks the first Netflix Original collaboration between the U.S. streaming giant and Nostromo.
A thriller, turning on an “obsession” which “knows no limits,” Netflix announced in a statement Tuesday, “Hogar” exploits the Spanish sense of “hogar” as not only a home but the place where one belongs, telling the story of Javier Muñoz, once a successful executive who after a year of unemployment makes the fateful decision with his family to leave the apartment that they can’t afford.
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One day, he discovers that he still has a set of keys to his old home, starts spying on the young couple that now lives there, then, little by little, begins infiltrating their lives, determined to recover the life he has lost, come what may.
Bruna Cursi, a sought-after actress after her Spanish Academy Goya winning performance in “Summer 1993,” and Ruth Díaz (“Tarde para la ira”) complete the key cast of film about two couples who, Netflix said, are apparent strangers but for one thing in common: an apartment.
An admired character actor for years, Gutiérrez broke through to far broader acclaim playing a police officer with a compromised past in Alberto Rodriguez’s “Marshland,” starred in Movistar +’s breakout comedy hit “Spanish Shame” and in Spain’s Oscar submission “Champions,” which has earned $22.2 million at Spanish cinema theaters this year.
Casas has gone the other way. Spain’s biggest heartthrob, thanks largely to TV roles and “Palm Trees in the Snow,” he has taken on evermore challenging character roles, climaxing in his performances in “Contratiempo,” which grossed $25 million in China, and as a Nazi concentration camp inmate in “The Photographer of Mauthausen.”
David Ramírez (“Narcos”), David Selvas (“Contratiempo”), Raül Ferré (“What The Future Holds”), David Verdaguer (“10.000 km”) Vicky Luengo (“Las leyes de la termodinámica”), and Ernesto Collado (“The Realm”) also form part of the cast.
“Hogar is a project we’ve been dreaming about for years that explores some of our favorite topics: Desire, ambition and the insanity hidden beneath the peaceful surface of everyday life”, David and Alex Pastor stated.
“Javier Muñoz, our leading man, is the broken mirror where the most materialistic aspirations of modern society are reflected,” they added, calling the film “our most personal and bold proposal.”
Netflix has signed one talent deal in Spain, with Alex Pina, the creator of “Money Heist” (“La casa de papel”). Since releasing its first Netflix Original film order in Spain with Roger Gual’s “Seven Years,” Netflix has moved, however, to collaborate on a single film basis with outstanding Spanish directors such as Isabel Coixet, on the upcoming lesbian drama “Eliza and Marcela,” and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, who is working on coming of age drama “Diecisiete.”
Netflix also announced recently that Argentine director Gabriela Tagliavini is directing “A pesar de todo,” a female-focused comedy road trip film starring Spanish superstars Blanca Suárez, Macarena García, Amaia Salamanca and Belén Cuesta. All three of these new films are scheduled for release in 2019.