Martin Scorsese is executive producing “Escape,” the next film from Spanish writer-director Rodrigo Cortés, who burst onto the international scene directing Ryan Reynolds in the 2010 Sundance hit “Buried.”
Set to go into production at the end of May, Cortés’ first Spanish-language film since his debut feature, 2007 madcap dark comedy “The Contestant,” “Escape” stars Mario Casas, a Spanish Academy Award Goya winner for 2020’s “Cross the Line.”
One of Spain’s biggest film-TV stars, Casas leads a top-notch Spanish cast in “Escape” which takes in Anna Castillo (“The Olive Tree,” “Holy Camp!”), José Garcia (“Bastille Day”), Guillermo Toledo (“I’m So Excited”), Josep Maria Pou (“The Realm”), Blanca Portillo (“Maixabel”), and Jose Sacristán (“Velvet”).
Produced by Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls at Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, “Escape” is a free adaptation of the same-title novel penned by Spanish author Enrique Rubio.
“Escape” turns on N., a young man who wants to live in prison and will do whatever it takes to get there – raising questions such as if those who care about him will manage to stop him from committing increasingly serious crimes and how far will a judge go to not grant him his wish.
“The film is an amazing and unique mix of genres,” Guerra told Variety in January when announcing the project.
“This is an exciting escape told in reverse. The story of a broken man who wants his freedom to be taken away from him. The impossible and fast-paced adventure of an escape in reverse,” he added.
France’s The Project co-produces in association with Spanish independent production house Mogambo, Cosmopolitan TV, and with the support of RTVE and Movistar Plus +. Film Factory handles international sales; Beta Fiction Spain distributes in Spain.
Executive production on “Escape” is just one example of an extraordinary outreach to filmmaking around the world by Scorsese, whose latest movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” world premiered at the Cannes Festival on May 20.
At this Cannes, France’s mk2 films pacted to distribute internationally a collection of prestigious restored films from Scorsese’s World Cinema Project, which has restored 51 classics from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America, and the Middle East.
March this year caught Scorsese sending a statement to Variety to endorse Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s “Tori & Lokita.”
In February, Scorsese confirmed he was executive producing “The Freshly Cut Grass,” from Argentina Celina Murga. He also executive produced her 2014 drama, “The Third Side of the River.”