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Carol Polakoff, a two-time Directors Guild of America award winner, is teaming with “Exodus” producer Denise O’Dell to adapt to the big screen “Speak Sunlight,” American writer Alan Jolis’ much-loved memoir.

Now in pre-production and scheduled to shoot from May 8, the high-profile title is produced by Madrid-based Babieka Films, most recently behind Netflix hit “The Paramedic,” and L.A.’s Viewfinder Pictures.

“Speak Sunlight” (“La Voz del Sol”) marks the directorial debut of journalist-screenwriter Polakoff whose curriculum includes two DGA wins and three Daytime Emmy Awards nominations for “ABC Afterschool Specials.” Most recently, Polakoff produced Daniel Rosenberg’s 2020 Cannes Official Selection title “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” which won a Cannes Label for making the cut in Thierry Frémaux’s First Features category.

To film in Spanish, with a smattering of French, “Speak Sunlight” is written by Polakoff with a Spanish version from Natxo López, a creator...

Denis O’Dell, the British film producer whose association with The Beatles earned him the rare honor of being mentioned, if obliquely, in one of the group’s songs, died of natural causes at his home in Spain last night. He was 98.

His death was announced to the Associated Press in Lisbon, Portugal, by son Arran O’Dell.

O’Dell had worked on a number of films, including It’s A Wonderful World, Tread Softly Stranger (both 1958) and The Playboy of the Western World (1962) when he signed on as associate producer of A Hard Day’s Night in 1964, beginning an association with The Beatles that would return to public attention with the 2021 Peter Jackson-directed Disney+ documentary series The Beatles: Get Back. (O’Dell is the one who loaned the group Twickenham Studios for their planned TV special.)

Following A Hard Day’s Night, O’Dell worked with John Lennon as an associate producer...

Denis O’Dell, a producer on two Beatles movies as well as “How I Won the War,” “Robin and Marian” and “Heaven’s Gate,” died Dec. 30 from natural causes in Almería, Spain at his home in San José, Cabo de Gata. He was 98.

Father of “Exodus: Gods and Kings” producer Denise O’Dell and grandfather of Denis Pedregosa, producer of Netflix hit “The Paramedic,” O’Dell’s connection with movies stretches back to the ‘40s.

He had already produced six movies, such as Brian Desmond Hurst’s “The Playboy of the Western World” in 1962, before his association with the Beatles, which began in professional terms with O’Dell taking an associate producer credit on Richard Lester’s “A Hard Day’s Night,” starring the Beatles and released in 1964.

O’Dell is generally credited with persuading John Lennon to go to Almería to star in the absurdist WWII drama “How I Won the War,” during...

Spain is no longer a distant country for international film and TV shoots, as the industry builds dramatically amid a flash flood of public financing.

In May 2020, as the first wave Covid-19 roiled the country, Spain’s Psoe socialist government raised the cap from €3 million ($3.6 million) to $14.4 million for both tax rebates for international projects and tax credits for local productions. Deduction rates edged up from 25% to 30% of investment.

In March, prime minister Pedro Sánchez raised the ante with a $1.9 billion Avs Hub Plan for 2021-25 to power up the local film and TV production industry and encourage big foreign players to shoot and set up production offices in Spain.

Already, thanks in part to a vaccination drive decimating infections, international shoots in Spain surpass pre-pandemic levels.

“Even in such a globally competitive marketplace, Spain remains one of the world’s leading destinations for producers wishing to capture content,” says Mike Day,...

From the late 1940s — and taking in “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “El Cid,” “A Fistful of Dollars” and “Doctor Zhivago” — Spain has welcomed some of the biggest movies and series in history.

As it battles to become one of Europe’s foremost production hubs, its service sector has grown with the Mediapro Studio and Secuoya Studios recently launching international shoot service divisions. Following, profiles of five of Spain’s top service players.

Babieka

For over 50 years, Babieka has helped handle big budget international shoots in Spain. Ridley Scott’s “Exodus,” Terry George’s “The Promise” and Reed Morano’s “The Rhythm Section” figure amongst its recent titles. Babieka also produces (Netflix film “The Paramedic”) and co-produces. “Top international productions are in our DNA. These prove an amazing training ground for our cast and crew that we benefit from in our own productions,” says CEO Denis Pedregosa.

Madrid-based production and services company Babieka Films is joining forces with Spanish filmmaker Josué Ramos (“Bajo la rosa”) on helmer’s sophomore feature, mystery thriller “La ciudad dormida.”

Ramos made waves on the festival circuit with his first film, psychological thriller “Bajo la rosa,” whose U.S. remake rights were optioned last year by Chris Hemsworth’s outfit Thematic Entertainment.

Written by Ramos, “La ciudad dormida” plot melds mystery, thriller, horror and paranormal elements.

After the hands of a missing child are found, a veteran police inspector, relegated to administrative duties, begins to investigate on his own. He is helped by a disabled girl, who claims to have dreamed of the horrible event that led to the child’s death just the night before.

The project will be produced by Orlando and Denis Pedregosa at Babieka while Ramos and Jordi Roca exec produce with Marta Ferrer García as associate producer.

Spanish production house Babieka Films is teaming with L.A.-based Viewfinder Pictures to co-produce a feature adaptation of Alan Jolis’ book “Speak Sunlight” (“La voz del sol”), the directorial debut of journalist-screenwriter-producer Carol Polakoff.

A coming-of-age story set in Paris and Pamplona during the Franco regime, the Spanish-language “Speak Sunlight” will begin production next spring in Navarre.

Polakoff, winner of two Directors Guild of America awards, has a producer’s credit on Dani Rosemberg’s Cannes Official Selection title “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” featuring in Thierry Frémaux’s First Features category.

Top Spanish TV scribe Natxo López, author of recent TV dramas “Perdida,” “Caronte” and “Unauthorized Living,” has adapted “Sunlight’s” Spanish-language version from Polakoff’s English script.

Babieka’s Denise O’Dell and Polakoff at Viewfinder are producing the film, with Orlando and Denis Pedregosa as executive producers, and Marta Ferrer García as associate producer.

Movistar Plus action thriller “Riot Police” (“Antidisturbios”), one of the most buzzed up of drama series from Spain this year, at least among the few who have caught its first episodes, will be brought onto the international market at next month’s Conecta Fiction Reboot.

The unveil comes as Movistar Plus, the pay TV/Svod arm of Spain’s Telefonica, fires up its drive to secure overseas markets for its premium drama slate with -reportedly, one of the most propulsive and full-on action-driven of its series, at least in Ep. 1, where a riot police squad is drafted in to carry out an eviction in the heart of a Senegalese community in Madrid. Captured in Ep. 1, their operation goes drastically awry as one protestor dies.

“Riot Police” marks first full series from Rodrigo Sorogoyen, whose kinetic, social-issue movies plumb the gut humanity of homicide police (“May God Save Us) and politicians...

Spain’s big shoots industry is putting the pedal to the metal, propelled by an encouraging improvement in tax breaks for international productions.

The moves aim to make Spain more attractive for big-budget projects, helping the sector look beyond Covid-19 crisis.

Approved May 5, the new measures increase tax rebates for international shoots from 25% to 30% for the first €1 million ($1.1 million) spend in Spain and cap a shoot’s total tax deduction at $10.8 million, up from $3.28 million.

It remains to be seen if the Canary Islands will continue to offer tax rebates 20 percentage points above rates for Spain’s mainland.

Navarre currently offers a 35% corporate tax deduction for Navarre-based companies, and the Basque Country offers 30% tax shelters for Spanish film/TV production.

The boost in incentives was received with a large sigh of relief by Spain’s production services industry.

“Improving tax rebate conditions will keep Spain’s competitive as an international location destination,...

Babieka Films, one of Spain’s top production services providers for international shoots, has teamed with videogames entrepreneur Ignacio Navas and company La Noche Americana to promote a new film and TV facility in the country, the Navarra Film Studios.

Set in the Western Pyrenees region of Navarre, Navarra Film Studios aims to supply production services to the growing demand of film and TV shoots, boosted by Navarre’s attractive tax incentives policy.

Spain lacks a high-profile film and TV studio facility, especially since Alicante’s Ciudad de la Luz complex ceased its activity in 2012.

Supported by the Navarre regional government, the new studios will focus on three business areas: Tax incentives, sound stages and tech services.

The region of Navarre allows access to a 35% corporate tax deduction for foreign and Spanish production shooting there, the biggest tax advantages on Spain’s mainland.

“With the tax incentives Navarre offers, what...

Denis Pedregosa from Kanzaman Productions just dropped Fango a line with a first-look at the new poster for 30 Days Of Night helmer David Slade's upcoming film, Cold Skin. We last told you about the film here, which joins The Twilight Saga's Eclipse on the Director's upcoming plate, with production set to begin on Cold Skin in 2010.

See the hi-rez poster after the jump, along with full details on the film.

"Based on the best-selling Spanish novel by Albert Sánchez Piñol, Cold Skin is set on an Antarctic island, where a young man is stationed to log wind conditions. He discovers that the place is the habitat of nocturnal, amphibious humanoids, and encounters an older man there named Gruner, who has tamed one and made it his sex slave. The protagonist comes to care for the female creature, leading to conflict with both Gruner and her kin."

28 Weeks Later writer Jesús Olmo,...

MADRID -- Spain's Kanzaman Prods. has joined Tom Hanks' Playtone Prods. as co-producer on "My Life in Ruins", written by and starring Nia Vardalos, the Spanish company said Thursday.

The $16 million project, which is in preproduction, will shoot almost entirely at production studio Ciudad de la Luz in the Valencia region, with Kanzaman's Denise O'Dell and Mark Albela as co-producers.

Kanzaman, producer of "Goya's Ghosts" and co-producer of "Kingdom of Heaven", set up an office in Valencia this past spring looking to capitalize on regional funds being offered to productions using La Ciudad de la Luz in the city of Alicante, located on Spain's Mediterranean coast.

"This deal demonstrates that our strategy is working," said Kanzaman chief Denis Pedregosa, who will take an associate producer credit on the film. "This is the reason we set up the new office, and the fact that it's happening just as planned means we're right on track."

The Valencia region allows for an automatic 12% rebate on local spending for pictures shooting at the new facility, with an additional 6% available depending on economic impact.