04/10/2006

Lola Films CEO Andrés Vicente Gómez and Werner Wirsing-Lueke, from German-based production and distribution outfit EMS New Media AG, have signed a co-production agreement for Carlos Saura's upcoming project Don Giovanni and for Menno Meyjes's Manolete, currently in postproduction.

Saura's Don Giovanni is a Spanish/Italian/Austrian/German co-production with an €8m budget whose principal photography is set to start between Vienna and Spain in the next month of November.

The film focuses on the relationship between Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, during the process of creation of the opera Don Giovanni. The cast includes Austrian actor Tobias Moretti in the lead and the young and talented Maria Valverde, who will be seen soon in the major production The Borgia [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and will be shot by DoP Vittorio Storaro.

According to that same agreement, EMS New Media will also distribute Meyjes's Manolete in Germany, while local distribution will be handled by newly-created distribution company AZ Films, from which Andrés Vicente Gómez is one of the partners.

The film, starring Oscar-winner Adrian Brody as legendary bullfighter Manolete and Penelope Cruz as his love interest Lupe Sino, was shot earlier this year on a €20m budget, produced by Lola Films, France's Quinta Communications and UK's Future Films.

Two other titles by Lola Films, Kay Pollak's As It is in Heaven and Miguel Ángel Lamata's Isi & Disi, alto voltaje (lit. “Isi & Disi: High Voltage”), are set to open locally in November and December. A third anticipated title, Teresa, starring Paz Vega as Saint Teresa (see news), will premiere in 2007.