Nacho G Velilla's A 100-million Reward heads to Berlinale Series Market Selects
- The Movistar Plus+ original series is toplined by Raúl Arévalo, Vito Sanz, Gabriel Guevara and Agustín Otón, and revisits a kidnapping that shook Spanish football to the core in the 1980s
In 1981, three mechanics from Zaragoza, burdened by debt and having endured months without work, decide to kidnap the top scorer in the Spanish football league, Enrique “Quini” Castro, the FC Barcelona striker. In exchange for his release, they demand 100 million pesetas (the currency used before the euro). But they soon discover – the hard way – that life is not like it is in the movies, and that being bad, when you are actually good, is not easy at all.
This is the synopsis (based on the script written by Oriol Capel), based on real events, of A 100-million Reward, a series consisting of three episodes of 50 minutes each, created and directed by Nacho G Velilla, the filmmaker behind hit comedies such as Menudas piezas, Por los pelos [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Chef's Special [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Perdiendo el norte [+see also:
trailer
film profile], as well as the series Aída and Siete vidas. The work will take part in the 2026 Berlinale Series Market Selects, which will be held between 15 and 18 February in the German capital.
The miniseries is toplined by Raúl Arévalo (a Goya-winning actor for Fat People [+see also:
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interview: Daniel Sánchez Arévalo
Interview with Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo,…
film profile] and seen recently in She Walks in Darkness [+see also:
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film profile]), Vito Sanz (who last year premiered Pet Peeves [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Polo
film profile], Un hombre bueno [+see also:
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film profile] and Myocardium [+see also:
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interview: José Manuel Carrasco
film profile]) and Gabriel Guevara (Raising Voices [+see also:
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series profile], How to Screw It All Up [+see also:
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interview: Jaime Olías, Pablo Sanherme…
series profile]) as the three kidnappers, alongside Agustín Otón (Los amores cobardes [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) as footballer “Quini”. The cast is rounded off by Aixa Villagrán (the series Bellas Artes [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile] and The Snow Girl 2), Natalia Huarte (the series Innato and Rotten Legacy), Julia de Castro (Poquita fe), María de Nati, La Dani, Emilio Palacios, Nacho Guerreros, Marisol Aznar, Jorge Asín, Rafa Maza, Teresa Rabal and Josele Román.
Shot last year on location in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Switzerland, according to Velilla, “as a director, I have always been drawn to the stories behind the big headlines. It's that backstory that often goes unnoticed, but which I believe is closer to our daily lives than the pithy headline that journalists usually write. We never intended to make a chronicle of the kidnapping, nor a thriller or a true-crime tale (even though the narrative sometimes flirts with those genres), but rather to tell the story from the point of view of three antiheroes, losers who make a wrong decision that could ruin their lives (as well as that of ‘Quini’). A 100-million Reward is a crime story told through comedy, a slippery and inherently tricky genre, but at the same time, it represents a highly demanding challenge that is enormously fun and stimulating - ideal for my first project with Movistar Plus+,” he concludes.
Fran Araújo, executive producer for the Movistar Plus+ platform, adds: “We had been wanting to find a project to work on with Nacho for some time, and when he told us about A 100-million Reward, we immediately knew we had found it. The combination of worlds and the comic tone of the storytelling connect with the great tradition of Spanish comedies starring rogues, losers and hapless wretches who end up crossing the line in order to get by.”
A 100-million Reward is a Movistar Plus+ original series produced in collaboration with Felicitas Media. Its international sales are handled by Movistar Plus+ International.
(Translated from Spanish)
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