Buenos Aires-based Film Sharks Int’l. has sold the streaming rights to Spanish sci-fi dystopian comedy “Some Time Later” (“Tiempo Despues”) to U.S. Spanish-language OTT platform Pantaya, HBO Max Central Europe and Amazon Spain.
The absurdist comedy is the swan song of beloved Spanish director Jose Luis Cuerda who died from a stroke early last year at age 72.
Talks are underway with a pan-regional Latin American buyer, said Film Sharks CEO Guido Rud, who has managed to set up a stand at Cannes’ Marché du Film after narrowly catching the last flight out of Buenos Aires just as COVID-afflicted Argentina began to close its borders again.
“Some Time Later” is set in the year 9177 when the entire cosmos has been reduced to a single high rise which houses the elite, led by a power-mad king, while scattered around it are grimy suburbs where everyone else resides in barbaric neo-medieval squalor. The arrival of a lemonade seller at the palace upsets the status quo.
Some Time Later
Courtesy of FilmSharks
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Theatrically released by eOne in Spain where it lured up to 250,000 admissions, “Some Time Later” features a stellar cast of Spanish talent, including Netflix’s “Cable Girls” lead Blanca Suarez; 2016 Goya best new actor winner Miguel Herran (“A Cambio de Nada”); multi-Goya nominee Antonio de la Torre (“May God Forgive Us,” “The Realm”) and Roberto Alamo (“The Skin I Live In,” “May God Forgive Us”), among others.
“Cuerda’s timeless cinema is finding homes in key territories thanks to streaming platforms where his vision can be honored, appreciated and discovered by more audiences,” said Rud, whose company is one of the leading sales agents for Spanish and Latin American cinema worldwide.
Nominated nine times for a Spanish Academy Goya and winner of four Goyas for directing and producing, Cuerda is credited for having discovered Alejandro Amenabar when he produced the young director’s outstanding debut feature, “Tesis,” in 1996. Amenabar went on to direct massive hits “Open Your Eyes” and his first English-language film, “The Others,” starring Nicole Kidman.
Standouts among the many films Cuerda directed and wrote were adapted screenplay Goya winners “Butterfly” (1999) and “The Blind Sunflowers” (2008).