Leading Chilean TV producer Maria Elena Wood, whose multiple credits include “News of a Kidnapping,” “Ramona” and “Dignity,” is developing a follow up to her company’s latest hit documentary “Operation Chile: Top Secret,” which, until the end of September, was the most-watched Chilean TV program that marked the 50th anniversary of the military coup d’état in Chile.
Wood will be at Ventana Sur to present the first animation feature she has boarded, “Lucila,” which has its market debut at this year’s Animation! Pitching Sessions.
“Our original idea is to make a documentary for a global audience and that is what we are working on now,” said Wood of the upcoming “Chile: An American Secret,” a Canada-Chile co-production, with Canada represented by director- producer Orlando Arriagada of Pimiento Prods. and Chile repped by her company Maria Wood Producciones and local partner Un día en la vida. They are...
Wood will be at Ventana Sur to present the first animation feature she has boarded, “Lucila,” which has its market debut at this year’s Animation! Pitching Sessions.
“Our original idea is to make a documentary for a global audience and that is what we are working on now,” said Wood of the upcoming “Chile: An American Secret,” a Canada-Chile co-production, with Canada represented by director- producer Orlando Arriagada of Pimiento Prods. and Chile repped by her company Maria Wood Producciones and local partner Un día en la vida. They are...
- 11/17/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Prominent Chilean TV producer Maria Elena Wood, a producer on “News of a Kidnapping,” “Dignity” and “Mary & Mike,” is teaming with multi-prized TV toon series director Bernardita Ojeda, helmer of two-time Intl. Emmy nominee “Petit,” to make 2D “Lucila,” both Wood and Ojeda’s first animated feature.
“I am amazed at [animation’s] narrative possibilities,” Wood enthused to Variety.
In a Chilean power package, Patricio Pereira, EP on “Dignity” and “Mary & Mike,” and Alvaro Ceppi, director of “Zumbástico Fantástico” and 2Paper Port,” have also boarded “Lucila” as exec producers.
Written by Argentine live action director Fernando Salem (“How Most Things Work”) and Chilean author Álvaro Bisama, “Lucila” is set to make its market debut at this year’s Animation! Pitching Sessions. Part of Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, backed by the Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film and Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency and organized with the Annecy Film Festival,...
“I am amazed at [animation’s] narrative possibilities,” Wood enthused to Variety.
In a Chilean power package, Patricio Pereira, EP on “Dignity” and “Mary & Mike,” and Alvaro Ceppi, director of “Zumbástico Fantástico” and 2Paper Port,” have also boarded “Lucila” as exec producers.
Written by Argentine live action director Fernando Salem (“How Most Things Work”) and Chilean author Álvaro Bisama, “Lucila” is set to make its market debut at this year’s Animation! Pitching Sessions. Part of Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, backed by the Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film and Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency and organized with the Annecy Film Festival,...
- 10/23/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
German production outfit Mmc Studios (“Amelie”) is backing romanic drama “Dear Eszter,” from writer/director Alex Balassa.
Bastian Griese and Lucas Hamacher will produce the film for Mmc Studios in Cologne, alongside Balassa.
The film’s co-producers include Peter Seres (“World War Z”) at Hungary’s Punk Films, as well as Ondrej Beranek (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) from the Czech Republic’s Blindspot Capital.
Two of Chile’s foremost TV producers, Maria Elena Wood (“Locas Mujeres”) and Patricio Pereira from Maria Wood Producciones (Mew), serve as executive producers.
Said Wood: “We are delighted that Sebastian Griese and Mmc are joining the project from Germany.”
Balassa and partner Marisol Mijares are producing through the Balassa Films (“Sweet Little Lies”) shingle. Balassa will direct from a script that he co-wrote with a number of writers, including Mijares, Mexico’s Alejandro Orozco, and Mario P. Székely (“And Your Mother Too”).
Based on the story of his grandmother,...
Bastian Griese and Lucas Hamacher will produce the film for Mmc Studios in Cologne, alongside Balassa.
The film’s co-producers include Peter Seres (“World War Z”) at Hungary’s Punk Films, as well as Ondrej Beranek (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) from the Czech Republic’s Blindspot Capital.
Two of Chile’s foremost TV producers, Maria Elena Wood (“Locas Mujeres”) and Patricio Pereira from Maria Wood Producciones (Mew), serve as executive producers.
Said Wood: “We are delighted that Sebastian Griese and Mmc are joining the project from Germany.”
Balassa and partner Marisol Mijares are producing through the Balassa Films (“Sweet Little Lies”) shingle. Balassa will direct from a script that he co-wrote with a number of writers, including Mijares, Mexico’s Alejandro Orozco, and Mario P. Székely (“And Your Mother Too”).
Based on the story of his grandmother,...
- 2/21/2023
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
María Elena Wood, producer of Turner’s “Mary & Mike,” Joyn’s “Dignity” and now “News of a Kidnapping” for Amazon Studios, is re-launching her own production house, María Wood Producciones.
Shaping up already as a key Latin American production partner for top high-end fiction producers in Europe and the U.S., Maria Wood Producciones will focus, as in past series produced by Wood, on premium scripted drama of substance, with a social or political underbelly and frequent recourse to creative film talent.
“It’s what we’ve always done and know how to do,” Wood told Variety in the run-up to Mipcom. In contrast to the past, however, she said that “rather than talk about villains, despicable people,” Maria Wood Producciones will “cherry pick more luminous, happier content which talks about how we are today.”
First up on Maria Wood Producciones’ slate is “Mujeres Grandes” (Big Women), an original half-hour...
Shaping up already as a key Latin American production partner for top high-end fiction producers in Europe and the U.S., Maria Wood Producciones will focus, as in past series produced by Wood, on premium scripted drama of substance, with a social or political underbelly and frequent recourse to creative film talent.
“It’s what we’ve always done and know how to do,” Wood told Variety in the run-up to Mipcom. In contrast to the past, however, she said that “rather than talk about villains, despicable people,” Maria Wood Producciones will “cherry pick more luminous, happier content which talks about how we are today.”
First up on Maria Wood Producciones’ slate is “Mujeres Grandes” (Big Women), an original half-hour...
- 10/12/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Paris — AMC’s “The Walking Dead: World Beyond,” Amazon Prime’s “Upload,” and Apple TV’s “Trying” will make their international premieres at the 3rd edition of Canneseries, which will run from March 27 to April 1.
The Riviera-set fest will host tributes to David Hasselhoff (“Baywatch”), “Sharp Object” and “Euphoria” breakout Sydney Sweeney, and “Transparent” star Judith Light, before closing with the world premiere of “The Bureau,” Season 5.
Producer Gale Anne Hurd will lead this year’s jury alongside actors Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent”) and Katja Herbers (“Westworld”), director Tawfik Abu Wael (“Our Boys”) and rocker Steward Copeland.
Pay-tv service Canal Plus will bring two high-profile French language offerings, launching the final season premiere of their spy thriller “The Bureau” and the series premiere of their hip-hop drama “Validé,” which was co-created by popular local star Franck Gastambide.
Of then ten series in the festival’s highly selective competition,...
The Riviera-set fest will host tributes to David Hasselhoff (“Baywatch”), “Sharp Object” and “Euphoria” breakout Sydney Sweeney, and “Transparent” star Judith Light, before closing with the world premiere of “The Bureau,” Season 5.
Producer Gale Anne Hurd will lead this year’s jury alongside actors Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent”) and Katja Herbers (“Westworld”), director Tawfik Abu Wael (“Our Boys”) and rocker Steward Copeland.
Pay-tv service Canal Plus will bring two high-profile French language offerings, launching the final season premiere of their spy thriller “The Bureau” and the series premiere of their hip-hop drama “Validé,” which was co-created by popular local star Franck Gastambide.
Of then ten series in the festival’s highly selective competition,...
- 2/26/2020
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Amazon Prime Video in Latin America has added four new Amazon Original Series to their catalog from Argentina, Chile and Colombia, the first Originals from the territories. The series will be available on the platform in more than 200 countries and territories.
Chile’s “La Jauría” (“The Pack”) already broadcast on domestic network Tvn, will be joined by three series set to begin production in 2020: “Iosi, El Espía Arrepentido,” “Colonia Dignidad” and “Noticia de un Secuestro.”
From Chile, “La Jauría” is directed by award-winner filmmaker Lucía Puenzo, whose 2007 feature “Xxy” won four prizes at the Cannes Festival. The series stars Chilean Oscar-nominated “A Fantastic Woman” lead actress Daniela Vega in a story of a Catholic school girl who starts a protest against a deadly online game in which men are recruited to commit acts of violence towards women. The girl disappears and her story goes viral when a video of...
Chile’s “La Jauría” (“The Pack”) already broadcast on domestic network Tvn, will be joined by three series set to begin production in 2020: “Iosi, El Espía Arrepentido,” “Colonia Dignidad” and “Noticia de un Secuestro.”
From Chile, “La Jauría” is directed by award-winner filmmaker Lucía Puenzo, whose 2007 feature “Xxy” won four prizes at the Cannes Festival. The series stars Chilean Oscar-nominated “A Fantastic Woman” lead actress Daniela Vega in a story of a Catholic school girl who starts a protest against a deadly online game in which men are recruited to commit acts of violence towards women. The girl disappears and her story goes viral when a video of...
- 1/24/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Based on true events, “Dignity,” a Chile-Germany co-production from co-creators Maria Elena Wood and Patricio Pereira, head writer-producer Andreas Gutzeit and director Julio Jorquera, has been a hit since its launch as the first original series from German digital platform Joyn, a streaming service run jointly by Discovery and German media giant ProSiebenSat.
The series is slated to launch on Mega, a co-commissioner along with Joyn, in Chile later this year. Distributor Red Arrow Studios International is currently in discussions with other broadcasters internationally.
Co-produced by Chile’s Invercine & Wood and international production company Story House Productions, the multi-timeline series takes place in a post-wwii German cult in Chile, headed by the harrowing Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi soldier who fled to rural Chile after the war.
There, he established the German-speaking Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony) and reigned over a generations-long culture of torture, child abuse and murder, all under...
The series is slated to launch on Mega, a co-commissioner along with Joyn, in Chile later this year. Distributor Red Arrow Studios International is currently in discussions with other broadcasters internationally.
Co-produced by Chile’s Invercine & Wood and international production company Story House Productions, the multi-timeline series takes place in a post-wwii German cult in Chile, headed by the harrowing Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi soldier who fled to rural Chile after the war.
There, he established the German-speaking Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony) and reigned over a generations-long culture of torture, child abuse and murder, all under...
- 1/21/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes — If Germany’s ProSiebenSat1 and Discovery had launched Joyn, their new streaming service, 10 years ago, they might have chosen as their first production a big action series, set in Germany, but with U.S. stars.
This September, in a sign of new times, the partners announced that their first original drama series commission is “Dignity,” set in Chile, half spoken in Spanish.
In other ways too, “Dignity,” described as a major political thriller, is a change-maker. Produced by Chile’s Invercine & Wood and Germany’s Storyhouse Productions, it is also one of a first brace of international co-productions at Chile’s top network Mega, as it moves not upscale premium series.
Distributed by Red Arrow International, and created by Maria Elena Wood and Patricio Pereira, eight-part “Dignity,” also a wrenching family drama, is inspired by chilling true events.
It tells the story of two brothers who were separated by former Nazi Paul Schaefer,...
This September, in a sign of new times, the partners announced that their first original drama series commission is “Dignity,” set in Chile, half spoken in Spanish.
In other ways too, “Dignity,” described as a major political thriller, is a change-maker. Produced by Chile’s Invercine & Wood and Germany’s Storyhouse Productions, it is also one of a first brace of international co-productions at Chile’s top network Mega, as it moves not upscale premium series.
Distributed by Red Arrow International, and created by Maria Elena Wood and Patricio Pereira, eight-part “Dignity,” also a wrenching family drama, is inspired by chilling true events.
It tells the story of two brothers who were separated by former Nazi Paul Schaefer,...
- 10/13/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Joyn, the new German streaming service backed by local media giant ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery, has ordered its first original series, “Dignity,” a political thriller about the hunt for an ex-Nazi who has set up a cult in Chile.
Joyn is a free platform offering live streaming of 55 channels, including German pubcasters Ard and Zdf, as well as a 30-day catchup library. The service, which launched in June, said it already has 3.8 million active monthly users, who do not have to register or subscribe.
Joyn has bought international dramas to bolster its offering, including Alex Pina’s acclaimed Spanish drama “The Pier.” The new, eight-episode “Dignity” is its first original commission, in partnership with Chile’s Mega, and is expected to land on Joyn in December and in Chile next year.
Produced by Germany’s Story House Prods. and Chile’s Invercine & Wood, the series takes its inspiration from a real-life German cult in Chile,...
Joyn is a free platform offering live streaming of 55 channels, including German pubcasters Ard and Zdf, as well as a 30-day catchup library. The service, which launched in June, said it already has 3.8 million active monthly users, who do not have to register or subscribe.
Joyn has bought international dramas to bolster its offering, including Alex Pina’s acclaimed Spanish drama “The Pier.” The new, eight-episode “Dignity” is its first original commission, in partnership with Chile’s Mega, and is expected to land on Joyn in December and in Chile next year.
Produced by Germany’s Story House Prods. and Chile’s Invercine & Wood, the series takes its inspiration from a real-life German cult in Chile,...
- 9/16/2019
- by Henry Chu
- Variety Film + TV
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