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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Spain

Nacho Vigalondo shooting the series The Neighbor for Netflix

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- The protagonist of this comedy, a screen adaptation of Santiago García and Pepo Pérez’s comic of the same name starring Quim Gutiérrez and Clara Lago, is an everyday superhero

Nacho Vigalondo shooting the series The Neighbor for Netflix
Quim Gutiérrez in The Neighbor

Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
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]
, Extraterrestrial [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile
]
) has fearlessly embraced the new forms of audiovisual exhibition represented by today’s digital platforms: last year, he helmed an episode of the series Into the Dark, called Pooka, for HBO España, and he also shared the director’s chair with Borja Cobeaga (Bomb Scared [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) on the historical comedy Justo antes de Cristo, for Movistar Plus+. He is currently engrossed in post-production for the series The Neighbor [+see also:
series review
series profile
]
, which is toplined by Quim Gutiérrez, Clara Lago, Catalina Sopelana and Adrián Pino, and is a comedy-adventure about your average superhero next door, based on Santiago García y Pepo Pérez’s comic of the same name. It depicts the day-to-day life of Javier, a thirtysomething who is an utter failure in the business world, and who has no idea how to cope with maturity or, indeed, his girlfriend. Javier has suddenly transformed into Titan, after an alien fell on top of him and transferred its powers to him before it died.

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However, he has a neighbour, José Ramón, who will help him in his new life: both to harness his potential to do good and to conceal his new personality from the rest of the world, because even his journalist girlfriend, Lola, is investigating the creature from outer space, its fall to Earth, and this mysterious new hero. The screen adaptation of the comic strip was entrusted to screenwriters Carlos de Pando and Sara Antuña, who previously cut their teeth on various chapters of The Ministry of Time and Victim Number 8, respectively.

El vecino, which was shot in Madrid last spring, is a Zeta Audiovisual production for Netflix. It will be available to watch on the platform during 2020. Madrid-based company El Ranchito is taking care of the visual effects.

Apart from El vecino, Netflix – which early this year opened its Madrid headquarters (see the news) – has another four series in the works in Spain: Días de Navidad, directed by Pau Freixas (Héroes [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) and starring Verónica Echegui, Anna Moliner, Nerea Barros, Elena Anaya, Victoria Abril, Verónica Forqué, Charo López and Ángela Molina (centring on a family reunion that spans various decades, produced by Filmax); the adaptation of the Carlos Montero novel El desorden que dejas (a psychological thriller that sees a literature teacher discover that her predecessor at the school took her own life); Valeria, another screen adaptation of the literary saga by Elísabet Benavent (about a group of girl friends, produced by Plano a Plano, and helmed by Inma Torrente and the director of María (and Everbody Else) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nely Reguera
film profile
]
, Nely Reguera); and Memorias de Idhun, an animated series inspired by the successful fantasy trilogy of the same name by Laura Gallego, who co-penned the script with Andrés Carrión (production duties are entrusted to Zeppelin, and it is being directed by Maite Ruiz de Austri, best known for The Legend of the Unicorn).

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(Translated from Spanish)

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