While Netflix has signed a contract with Spanish outfit Bambú Producciones to shoot the series Cable girls, its most serious national rival, Movistar Plus+, is planning to get around 20 fiction shows off the ground in the coming months. Two of them will have highly renowned names in the Spanish film industry behind them, such as Alberto Rodríguez (Marshland [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alberto Rodríguez
scheda film]), Juan Cavestany (a standard bearer for indie cinema, who will be releasing Esa sensación [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juan Cavestany
scheda film] in theatres on 13 May) and Álvaro Fernández Armero (a versatile filmmaker who has directed TV series, documentaries and comedies, such as Las ovejas no pierden el tren [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]).

Alberto Rodríguez is currently immersed in pre-production for La peste, which comprises six 45-minute episodes and is being produced by Atípica Films, the company responsible for the Andalusian filmmaker’s successful movies. With this project, Atípica Films is taking its baby steps in the world of television, as are Rodríguez and his regular screenwriter, Rafael Cobos. La peste is a fictional thriller set in decaying 16^th-century Seville, which has been devastated by the outbreak of the Plague, not entirely unlike the moral crisis of the modern day.

Meanwhile, over the next few weeks, duo Juan Cavestany and Álvaro Fernández Armero will set about filming Vergüenza, an irreverent comedy series written by both directors and made up of ten half-hour episodes that will dissect pathetic human behaviour – in this case, revelling in awkward situations that will really make you cringe. It will star Javier Gutiérrez and Malena Alterio as a couple who are fond of making fools of themselves in everyday surroundings. It is being produced by Apaches Entertainment, which is releasing Toro [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Kike Maíllo
scheda film] by Kike Maíllo in theatres this Friday, at the same time as it opens the Málaga Film Festival (read the news).

Both La peste and Vergüenza are slated to be broadcast in 2017, and filmmakers such as David Trueba and Cesc Gay are just some of the other names in Movistar Plus+’s tantalising reserve of exciting directors.