Netflix Announces Seven New Spanish Originals

MADRID — Netflix announced Thursday in Madrid seven new Spanish Originals: Two series, three features, one documentary and an unscripted title.

The titles confirm a rapid ramp-up in production volume for Netflix in Spain, whose output to date takes in two of the U.S. giant’s standout breakouts in international, not only in Spain but overseas “La Casa de Papel” (Money Heist), “High Seas” and “Elite.”

Netflix’s Spanish production output, which boasts the first Netflix European Production hub soundstage complex at Madrid’s Tres Cantosis already one of the most voluminous in the world with 32 current or upcoming productions, according to a September 2019 report by Ampere Analysis. Only the U.K., Japan, Cnada, Mexico and Brazil bettered that figure.

Among the novelties:

* A currently-untitled show, the first series created by renown Spanish film director Daniel Sanchez Arévalo, (“Darkbluealmostblack,” “Cousins”), described as “an exciting story of friendship and perseverance” in a netflix statement after the presentation.  The series is set up at José Antonio Félez’s Atípica Films, Sánchez Arévalo’s longtime producer, and is currently in development.

*”Jaguar,” another new series, starring “Cable Girls’” Blanca Suárez. Spanish powerhouse Bambú Producciones (“Velvet,” High Seas”) produces the title, set in ‘60s Spain, a hiding place for hundreds of ex-Nazis. Suárez plays a Mauthausen survivor who joins an elite group of Nazi hunters on the trail Skorzeny, known as the most dangerous man in Europe.

*Among new films, Quim Gutiérrez and Carmen Machi star in “Amor de madre,” directed by Paco Caballero (“Perdiendo el Este”), a comedy about a left-at-the-altar groom who goes off on his honeymoon with his mother.

*Netflix has also ordered up an untitled romantic comedy from Dani de la Orden, who directed six episodes of “Elite,” about a young man who volunteers to work at a psychiatric center, in order to re-meet the potential love of his life.

*The third and final new feature is ”Fuimos canciones,” adapting the biography, “Canciones y recuerdos,” by Elisabet Benavent.

Also new is the service’s second Spanish reality series, after “Nailed It! Spain,” “¡A Cantar!,” a singing contest, and a documentary, “La Casa de Papel” about the remarkable international audience phenomenon which “Money Heist” (“La Casa de Papel”) has become.

The new titles also roll off six Annies for Sergio Pablo’s “Klaus,” produced out of Pablos’ SPA Studios in Madrid, and Netflix’s ever greater diversification from its early, iconic YA shows in Spain, as elsewhere, into ever more diverse demographic fare, as the fastest growing subscriber age groups for Netflix are now found among over-45s, per Ampere Analysis.

“We have and will continue to support creators betting on diversity in the stories which we make known. Our objective and commitment to the industry is to position Spanish talent as as a worldwide reference,” Diego Ávalos, VP, original content, said onstage at the Madrid press conference.

He added: “The technical quality of the teams and high level of the writers confirm that this objective is already partly achieved in the present.

In addition to the new titles, Netflix confirmed or shared details on other series set to return in the coming year, as well as first-look photos from already-announced upcoming series and films.

* From “House of Flowers” creator Manolo Caro, “Someone Has to Die” is another Spanish-Mexican hybrid story, this time told in three episodes. Set in Franco’s 1950s Spain, the series follows an affluent, conservative family headlined by three-time Goya-winning acress Carmen Maura and “House of Flowers” star Cecilia Suárez.

* “Elite” co-writer Carlos Montero will adapt his 2016 thriller novel “The Mess You Leave Behind” as a series for the platform, starring “The Bride” and “Madrid is Burning” star Inma Cuesta and Goya-winner Bárbara Lennie (“Magical Girl”) in a Galicia-set story about a new teacher and the woman she is replacing.

* Spanish superstar Mario Casas (“instinto”) popped up three times, in Oriol Paulo’s new series “El inocente,” the story of a man who, while trying to break up a fight, reluctantly becomes a murderer,; again in the feature “Hogar,” alongside the equally popular Javier Gutiérrez, a thriller directed by Spanish brothers Alex and David Pastor, which bows March 25; and in “El Practicante,” directed by Carles Torras, shot in Barcelona and turning on an EMT worker who suffers a terrible accident.

* Sure to excite audiences in Spain and abroad, Netflix also confirmed returns for the fifth and final season of the platform’s first Spanish Original Series “Cable Girls” coming Feb. 14, “Money Heist” Part 4 coming April 3, “Elite” Season 3, “High Seas” Season 3 and “Hache” Season 2.

* Embargoed details, videos and images were also shared on the previously announced Spanish anime series “Memorias de Idhún” and “Money Heist” creator Alex Pina’s next series “Sky Rojo,” about a trio of prostitutes from Cuba, Argentina and Spain on the run from their oppressive pimp.