Los Javis producing Nacho Vigalondo’s series Superestar
- The men behind La Mesías are backing the Netflix project that revisits the life, work and miracles of colourful Spanish pop and underground diva Tamara
UPDATE (1 February 2024): The cast has now been unveiled: Ingrid García-Jonsson (whom we saw recently in Un amor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile]) plays Tamara (who is now known as Yurena), Natalia de Molina (from last year’s Asedio [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) is Loly Álvarez, Secun de la Rosa (in the recent series 30 Coins [+see also:
series review
series profile]) plays Leonardo Dantés, Pepón Nieto (last year’s Smiley) takes on the role of Tony Genil, Carlos Areces (last year’s comedies Alimañas and De perdidos a Río [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) is Paco Porras, Julián Villagrán (recently appearing in the Netflix series The Snow Girl) steps into the shoes of Arlequín, and Rocío Ibáñez (The Sacred Spirit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Chema García Ibarra
film profile]) breathes life into Margarita Seisdedos, Tamara’s mother.
-
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (also known as Los Javis) are the true kings of the Spanish audiovisual scene at the moment: not only are they racking up plaudits and awards with La Mesías [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile], a series selected by the Sundance Film Festival, but they have also just aired the miniseries Vestidas de azul, which they produced, and in a month’s time, they will present the Goya Awards gala together with actress and singer Ana Belén. On top of this, Netflix has unveiled a project being backed by the duo: Superestar, a fiction series created by Nacho Vigalondo (the director of Time Crimes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alejandro Miranda
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile], Colossal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nacho Vigalondo
film profile] and, more recently, various episodes of the series The Neighbor [+see also:
series review
series profile] and Historias para no dormir [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile]), which will revolve around the artistic baby steps of singer Yurena, who rose to fame as Tamara, a phenomenon who became a pop icon in the early 2000s after releasing the song “No cambié” and her subsequent album Superestar.
The series is described as follows: with the arrival of the new century, a comet shot across the Spanish skies, tearing up the rule book of fame and success, and breaking down the boundary between pop and underground. For a couple of years, the front pages and prime-time shows were dominated by celebrities from another dimension: creatures that, up until then, had seemed destined to be ridiculed and snubbed, and which captured people’s attention without adhering to “normality”. A magical tale with enough room for arcane conspiracies, never-ending nights, quantum bricks, multicoloured supervillains and an unlikely individual who gets turned into a star: Tamara.
The reimagining of so-called “Tamarismo” from the hearts of its protagonists will boast six episodes directed by Vigalondo and Claudia Costafreda (who also garnered praise for Cardo), and written by them both together with María Bastarós and Paco Bezerra. The cast has yet to be announced.
“There’s nothing we like more than pop and looking back at the past, at the history of our country. If there’s a wild era when anything was possible, it’s the era of ‘Tamarismo’, where the most unlikely protagonists took up hours and hours of television,” states Javier Calvo. “When you approach a fiction based on real events, the most important thing is to find the right point of view. Superestar has indeed found this thanks to the brilliant and bonkers mind of Nacho Vigalondo. Behind the series is a pool of talented individuals, the likes of which I haven’t often seen before. It’s a tribute to an era in Spanish history that deserves to be revisited,” adds Javier Ambrossi, who, together with Calvo, is responsible for reviving another character from Spanish pop culture, late trans icon La Veneno, and for creating an inescapable new pop role model in Paquita Salas in the series Veneno [+see also:
series review
series profile] and Paquita Salas, respectively, which they both directed, much like the movie Holy Camp! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Calvo and Javier Amb…
film profile].
Nacho Vigalondo – who is poised to release his latest film, Daniela Forever, and whom we recently saw acting in the series The Other Side [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile] as well as in La Mesías – remarked: “One of the biggest lucky breaks I’ve had in my career is my creative involvement with Los Javis, and this series is the pinnacle of that equation, which incredible talents like Costafreda, Bastarós and Bezerra have elevated and taken sky high. In Superestar, we wanted to understand, humanise and pay our respects to characters who were treated badly, and while doing so, we have made a dumper truck full of fantasy, magic and madness that looks nothing like anything seen before."
Superestar is a Netflix Original series being produced by Suma Content.
(Translated from Spanish)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
