09/02/2011

On Monday, February 7, Alex de la Iglesia, who has only a few days left as president of the Spanish Film Academy, started shooting his tenth feature, La Chispa de la Vida (“The Spark of Life”). Lensing will last seven weeks in locations in Madrid and Cartagena.

The Basque helmer will thus get back to focusing on his directorial work after a turbulent few weeks in which he found himself in the eye of the storm: he voiced his opinions during the vote on the anti-piracy legislation (known as the Sinde Law – see news) pushed through by the Culture Ministry and resigned as Film Academy president due to his disagreement with the law (see news). He will only have to leave the film shoot this Sunday for the Goya Awards ceremony, where he will be host (as president of the Film Academy) and contender (A Sad Trumpet Ballad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile] is the film with the most nominations – see news).

For La Chispa de la Vida, De la Iglesia has reunited with producer Andrés Vicente Gómez, with whom he made some of his best-known films, The Day of the Beast (1995) and Common Wealth (2000). His latest outing is produced by Trivisión and Alfresco Enterprises, in collaboration with France’s La Ferme Productions.

The film is adapted by De la Iglesia from an original screenplay by Randy Feldman. The story centres on Roberto, an out-of-work publicist in dire financial straits. Everything changes when he has an accident and is left trapped in such a way that nobody knows how to rescue him.

The absurd incident attracts media interest, so Roberto decides to turn the situation into a media circus. The idea is simple: he will sell the exclusive rights to television companies and secure his family’s future for ever.

Starring comedian José Mota and Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek, the cast also includes Juan Luis Galiardo, Fernando Tejero, Carolina Bang and Santiago Segura.

(Translated from Spanish)