Plano a Plano, one of the few top 100% independent production houses on the vibrant Spanish TV landscape, is exploring new market opportunities, dipping its toe into co-production, and preparing its first original series for Netflix.
Since 2014, Plano a Plano has produced some of the most successful series for Spain’s free-to-air TV market, such as thriller drama “El Príncipe” for Mediaset España; and culture-clash romcom “Down Below,” now in its fifth and final season at Atresmedia.
Headed by seasoned Spanish film and TV producer César Benítez, Plano a Plano is now eyeing diversification, testing new, at least for Spain, production models.
In one move, it has sealed a strategic alliance with Mexico’s Dopamine Studios to develop a still-untitled TV drama about Morelia’s care for Spanish children.
The project will tell the story of two of the 456 children who arrived in Mexico on June 7, 1937 from all over Spain, decimated at that time by the Civil War.
The “Morelia” series will rescue a story that linked back to both countries and is scheduled to roll between Mexico and Spain, with cast from both sides of the Atlantic.
+The Madrid-based company is also about to start to roll on female dramedy “Valeria,” its first original series for Netflix.
Screenwriter-novelist María López Castaño (“Paco’s Men,” “Grand Hotel”) is lead writer on “Valeria,” based on same-title novel saga by Spanish author Elísabet Benavent, published by Penguin Random House.
Produced by Benítez, the series will follow a writer in crisis, her three best friends, and their whirlwind of emotions about love, friendship, jealousy, unfaithfulness, doubts, heartbreak, secrets, work, worries, joy and dreams of the future.
“Currently, we are focused on meeting the needs of linear operators and OTTs, apart from closing further strategic alliances to co-produce, as we have done with Dopamine,” said Plano a Plano’s Emilio Amaré..
Plano a Plano is about to seal two new TV drama co-productions, he added.
Upcoming Plano a Plano releases for Spain’s free-to-air market take in Atresmedia thriller “Toy Boy” and missing persons drama “Desaparecidos” for Mediaset España. It is also produceing daily soap “Servir y proteger” for public broadcaster RTVE.
A large question at the flourishing Spanish TV drama landscape is if the benefits generated by TV projects commissioned by local broadcasters and OTTs could be re-invested in co-production projects with international partners, allowing Plano a Plano to retain IP.
“As of today, that change of business model is still to come, at least in Spain,” he argued.
“We are sure, and we’re working towards it, that in the future we will be able to retain part of that IP, since the original idea of each project is ours. We finance it, we produce it,” added.
Last year, Plano a Plano entered for the first time ever into short-format series production with “Pasionaria Millennial,” exclusively created for Instagram, and webseries “Abducidos,” a spin-off of RTVE’s La1 primetime series “El Caso. Crónica de sucesos,” created for RTVE’s platform Playz.
“We want to continue working on testing new formats. All this without neglecting, of course, traditional fiction projects and possible co-production alliances,” he concluded.