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Fernando Trueba is known for bringing life’s deepest emotions to the big screen. With films like Belle Époque and La niña de tus ojos, he’s captured hearts around the world and earned international acclaim, including an Oscar. So when rumors swirled of an English-language project starring Matt Dillon, expectations were high.

Haunted Heart whisks viewers to a Greek island paradise, where passions ignite between strangers. Dillon plays Max, a myster man running from his past. When young Alex arrives seeking work, her curiosity about Max grows into something more. But as secrets surface, it becomes clear there’s darkness in his history.

Trueba’s mastery shines in the stages of their relationship. Summer burns with new romance’s thrill. Autumn casts longing looks at what once was. And winter’s chills mirror the frost forming between them. Through it all, his lens soaks up the Mediterranean’s beauty...

Penélope Cruz Depositphotos

Penélope Cruz Sánchez, born on April 28, 1974, is a renowned Spanish actress. She has made a name for herself in various film genres, particularly in Spanish-language films, and has received numerous awards and nominations for her exceptional performances. These accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, four Golden Globe Award nominations, and five Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Cruz embarked on her acting career at a young age, signing with an agent at 15. She made her television debut at 16 and her first appearance in a feature film the following year in Jamón Jamón (1992). Her notable roles include Belle Époque (1992), Open Your Eyes (1997), Don Juan (1998), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000), and Woman on Top (2000). She is particularly recognized for her collaborations with acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar in films such as Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), Volver...

Los Angeles-based production-distribution house Cinema Libre Studio has acquired U.S. rights to Frédéric Choffat and Julie Gilbert’s “My Little One,” in the wake of its U.S. premiere at the Miami Film Festival.

The deal was closed by Philippe Diaz, Cinema Libre Studio chairman and Loic Magneron, founder of Paris’ Wide Management, the film’s sales agent.

Produced by Anne Deluz and Jessica Huppert Berman for Luc Peter’s Intermezzo Films and Les Films du Tigre, and co-produced by public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (Rts), “My Little One” has been seen to date, of festivals, at Germany’s Frankfurt Biennal, Tübingen and Stuttgart and Mannheim-Heidelberg, as well as France’s Beaujolais French-Language Cinema Meetings and Switzerland’s Solothurn Film Festival, before its theatrical release in Switzerland.

“My Little One” has been licensed to South Korea in an all rights deal and to Eastern Europe, for premium pay TV and VOD.

Penélope Cruz will receive the Donostia Award at San Sebastian this year Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Spanish actress Penélope Cruz will receive the Donostia Award at this year's San Sebastian Film Festival

The award honours the career of the Academy Award and BAFTA winner - who is also celebrated by this year's festival poster.

The 45-year-old began her career in Spain, with films including Bigas Lunas Jamon Jamon, Fernando Trueba's Belle Époque and Alejandro Aménabar's Open Your Eyes, but she has gone on to enjoy huge success in English language film as well. She won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role of Maria in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which also won her a Goya - the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards. She has also won leading role Goyas for Volver and The Girl Of Your Dreams.

Cruz - who also works...

Barcelona – Soon set to be seen at Cannes’ in Pedro Almodóvar’s competition contender “Pain and Glory.” Penélope Cruz will receive the 2019 Donostia Award for career achievement at the 67th San Sebastian Festival, which runs Sept. 20-28 at the Basque resort city.

The Spanish actress will be honored doubly way, as she will also be the official image on this year’s festival poster.

No other Spanish actress has received the international recognition of Cruz, nor her number of top-echelon prizes and nominations as she has battled to broaden the roles open to Latin actresses.

She demonstrated a range most memorably perhaps winning a best supporting actress Academy Award and Bafta winner for her performance as Maria Elena in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

“Cruz, who officially graduated from sex kitten to powerhouse melodramatic actress in ‘Volver,’ is in full Anna Magnani mode here, storming up and down mountain...

It’s a good thing that Netflix already has the “Gilmore Girls” for all of those sweet Thanksgiving vibes, because the streaming giant is coming down from that Halloween sugar high in a bad way and following last month’s blockbuster slate with a relatively unremarkable roster of new additions. Proving that there isn’t much rhyme or reason behind when they’re able to upload new movies (it’s hard to curate around contract rights), the platform’s latest batch of titles is heavy on horror movies and light on seasonal fare.

Still, it’s not all bad news for those of you who might be looking for something to stream while you’re home for the holidays. Comfort watches like “Casper” and “Field of Dreams” are perfect things to put on when you’re immobilized by a stomach full of turkey, and you can even go for an...

Penélope Cruz as Macarena Granada in Fernando Trueba's The Queen Of Spain is presented an Oscar by Cary Grant

In my conversation with Fernando Trueba at the W Hotel Union Square in New York, he paid tribute to Emilio Ruiz del Río, who also worked with Stanley Kubrick (Spartacus), David Lean (Lawrence Of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago), Nicholas Ray (King Of Kings), John Milius (Conan The Barbarian), and Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth). Fernando's latest, The Queen Of Spain (La Reina De España) stars Penélope Cruz who was also his The Girl Of Your Dreams (La Niña De Tus Ojos) with Antonio Resines, Santiago Segura, Rosa Maria Sardà, Jorge Sanz, Jesús Bonilla, and Loles León, who all return here.

Penélope Cruz as Queen Isabella of Castile with John Scott (Clive Revill): "He is not John Ford but he is inspired by him."

In The Queen Of Spain, Mandy Patinkin,...

Myriad Pictures handles international sales on Penelope Cruz drama.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired Us rights to Fernando Trueba’s The Queen Of Spain starring Penelope Cruz.

The story centres as film star Macarena Granada who flees Hollywood in the 1950s and returns to her roots in Spain where she signs on to star in an epic film as Queen Isabella of Spain.

The Queen Of Spain premiered at the Berlinale as a special gala screening and also stars Chino Darín, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Clive Revill and Antonio Resines. Universal distributed theatrically in Spain.

Cristina Huete and Anne Deluz produced, while A3 Media, Mikel LeJarza, Mercedes Gamero, Rosa Perez, and Kirk D’Amico served as executive producers.

The film follows up on Trueba’s 1998 drama The Girl Of Your Dreams starring Cruz as a younger Granada.

Samuel Goldwyn Films president Peter Goldwyn brokered the deal with Kirk D’Amico, whose [link=co...

Author: Stefan Pape

Poking fun Hollywood, and the golden age of movie-making in particular, Fernando Trueba’s The Queen of Spain laughs at the industry with the same affection and romanticism that Hail, Caesar! carried, to find that compatible balance between ridicule and adulation. Given this meta endeavour is set within the business it allows the filmmaker a licence to be overstated, and he uses that freedom in quite remarkable fashion, with an aesthetic almost as vibrant as that of which we saw in his enchanting, Oscar-nominated animation Chico & Rita.

Blas Fontiveros (Antonio Resines) has been presumed dead, but makes a shocking return to world of make believe by turning up on the set of the Hollywood blockbuster set in Spain and starring their most famous export, the fictional creation of Macarena Granada (Penélope Cruz) – a character who first graced the screen in Trueba’s The Girl of Your Dreams...

The Girl of Your Dreams (1998) was an engaging if unmemorable historical dramedy about the cinematic struggles of a troupe of actors in which Penelope Cruz’s talents stood out. And you could say much the same about The Queen of Spain, Fernando Trueba’s 18-years-later follow-up. Though the setting has changed from Nazi Germany to 1950s Spain, at the height of Franco’s power, this second, altogether less winsome iteration features many of the same actors, a similar range of characters and caricatures and indeed a not dissimilar spring-the-prisoner storyline, but all at the service of a lazy script which is anything...

A strong local offering led to a excellent year at the Spanish box office.

In a stellar year for local films at the Spanish box office, Ja Bayona’s A Monster Calls, distributed by Universal Pictures International, stands out.

Released on October 7 following a world premiere at Toronto, the English-language film benefited from strong reviews and positive word of mouth and topped the Spanish box office chart with a cumulative gross of $27 million. Based on the children’s novel of the same name by Patrick Ness, the fantasy film stars Lewis MacDougall as a young boy who befriends a monster that helps him come to terms with his mother’s terminal illness.

Read more: Year-on-year slump at German box office in 2016

The top 25 films at the Spanish box office are below (correct to November 27).

Even before A Monster Calls was released, admissions had increased 7.5% and box office had grown 8% year-on-year by the end of September, according to Fapae...

After Sundance Film Festival concludes in late January, the next big cinematic event on the globe is the Berlin International Film Festival. With Paul Verhoeven serving as jury president for the 67th edition of the festival, they’ve now announced their first line-up of titles, including Aki Kaurismäki‘s The Other Side of Hope (pictured above), Oren Moverman‘s Richard Gere-led The Dinner, Sally Potter‘s The Party (pictured below), and Agnieszka Holland‘s Spoor, as well as a restoration of a Rainer Werner Fassbinder TV show.

Check out the first titles below, and return for our coverage from the festival.

Competition

A teströl és a lélekröl (On Body and Soul)

Hungary

By Ildiko Enyedi (My 20th Century, Simon the Magician)

With Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider

World premiere

Ana, mon amour

Romania/Germany/France

By Călin Peter Netzer (Child‘s Pose, Maria)

With Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti,...

Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Sally Potter among competition lineup.

The first 14 films have been announced for the Competition and Berlinale Special sections of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Among directors with movies in competition are Aki Kaurismäki, Oren Moverman, Agnieszka Holland, Andres Veiel, Sebastián Lelio and Sally Potter.

Moverman’s (The Messenger) mystery-drama The Dinner stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall and Chloë Sevigny.

Fernando Trueba’s comedy-drama The Queen of Spain, starring Penelope Cruz, will get its international premiere in the Berlinale Special strand.

More to follow…

Competition

A teströl és a lélekröl (On Body and Soul) (Hungary)

By Ildiko Enyedi (My 20th Century, Simon the Magician)

With Géza Morcsányi, Alexandra Borbély, Zoltán Schneider

World premiere

Ana, mon amour (Romania / Germany / France)

By Călin Peter Netzer (Child‘s Pose, Maria)

With Mircea Postelnicu, Diana Cavallioti, Carmen Tănase, Adrian Titieni, Vlad Ivanov

World premiere

Beuys - Documentary (Germany)

By Andres Veiel ([link...

Goat

Paramount and The Film Arcade have announced a September 23rd release date for "Goat," Andrew Neel's fraternity drama which was a hit at Sundance. Nick Jonas and Ben Schnetzer star in the film which will open on September 23rd in New York, Los Angeles, and other select U.S. cities along with a digital and on demand release on that date. [Source: EW]

Who Am I

David Goyer is set to direct a remake of Baran bo Odar's German film "Who Am I". The story follows a man who falls in with a group of hackers in Berlin who attempt to gain notoriety by disrupting the public order. Dan Wiedenhaupt ("The Solutrean") is penning the script for the remake. [Source: Deadline]

Euphoria

Charlotte Rampling ("45 Years") is set to join the cast of Swedish writer and director Lisa Langseth's "Euphoria" alongside Alicia Vikander and Eva Green. Vikander and Green play estranged...

Penélope Cruz returns as the beloved movie star Macarena Granada in Fernando Trueba’s comedy-drama “The Queen of Spain.” The first teaser trailer for the Spanish-language film was released by Universal Spain’s Twitter account, showing the actress dressed in lavish period pieces and greeting fans as she disembarks a private plane.

“La Reina De España,” as it’s originally titled, follows Macarena, who flees from the glitz and glamour of 1950s Hollywood to return to Madrid, where she signs on to star in an epic Hollywood film.

Read More: Asghar Farhadi To Direct Penélope Cruz & Javier Bardem in Spanish-Language Thriller

The movie is a sequel to Trueba’s 1998 drama “The Girl Of Your Dreams,” also starring Cruz and set during the Spanish Civil War. The feature won Cruz her first Goya Award and took home seven Goyas total.

This is the third time that the director and Cruz work together.

Among the most anticipated Spanish productions of the year are a Paleolithic period drama, the new Almodovar and a regal role for Penelope Cruz.A Monster Calls

Dir Ja Bayona

A Monster Calls completes Bayona’s trilogy exploring motherhood, after The Orphanage and The Impossible. Patrick Ness has adapted his novel about a boy who seeks refuge in a fantasy world. The English-language film, which shot in Spain and the UK, stars Liam Neeson. It is a Spain-us co-production between Apaches Entertainment with Telecinco Cinema, Peliculas La Trini, Participant Media, River Road Entertainment and Lionsgate. Set for release in the autumn, it will be distributed in Spain by Universal Pictures International, in the Us by Focus and in the UK via eOne.

Contact Lionsgate International: www.lionsgate.com

Abracadabra

Dir Pablo Berger

Berger’s follow-up to Blancanieves again stars Maribel Verdu, this time as a housewife determined to fight the spirit possessing her husband. Set to shoot...

Kirk D’Amico and his team will introduce Cannes buyers to the upcoming drama from Fernando Trueba starring Penelope Cruz.

Myriad Pictures holds world rights excluding Spain and Andorra to the project, currently shooting in Spain and Budapest.

Trueba and Cruz unite after Belle Epoque and The Girl Of Your Dreams. Cruz plays a WWII-era Spanish actress who returns from Hollywood to her home country to play Isabella I of Castille.

On the set she encounters the main characters from The Girl Of Your Dreams, played by Antonio Resines, Jorge Sanz, Rosa Maria Sarda, and Santiago Segura.

The cast includes Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Clive Revill, and Chino Darin.

“We are delighted to be able to work with director Fernando Trueba, one of Spain’s best directors today, and with international star Penelope Cruz on this comedic and poignant film with a great cast and great international production team,” said Myriad president D’Amico.

Cristina Huete and [link...

The two directors have joined the cast of Fernando Trueba’s film, which is now shooting in Budapest.

Directors Arturo Ripstein (La Calle De La Amargura) and Juan Antonio Bayona [pictured] (The Impossible) will step in front of the camera for Fernando Trueba’s The Queen Of Spain, his Penelope Cruz-starring sequel to The Girl Of Your Dreams.

It’s an acting first for Bayona, having accepted a brief cameo in the shoot that is now taking place in Budapest. Veteran Mexican director Ripstein will play the more sizable role of a fictional film producer, Sam Spiegelman, who wants to shoot a film in 1950s Spain.

Given that The Queen Of Spain is a comedy, but also a love letter to film history, it’s only fitting that two auteurs as diverse as Bayona and Ripstein have joined Trueba’s cast.

The action is set in 1956, 18 years later in the life of Macarena Granada, the Spanish...

The two directors have joined the cast of Fernando Trueba’s film, which is now shooting in Budapest.

Directors Arturo Ripstein (La Calle De La Amargura) and Juan Antonio Bayona [pictured] (The Impossible) will step in front of the camera for Fernando Trueba’s The Queen Of Spain, his Penelope Cruz-starring sequel to The Girl Of Your Dreams.

It’s an acting first for Bayona, having accepted a brief cameo in the shoot that is now taking place in Budapest. Veteran Mexican director Ripstein will play the more sizable role of a fictional film producer, Sam Spiegelman, who wants to shoot a film in 1950s Spain.

Given that The Queen Of Spain is a comedy, but also a love letter to film history, it’s only fitting that two auteurs as diverse as Bayona and Ripstein have joined Trueba’s cast.

The action is set in 1956, 18 years later in the life of Macarena Granada, the Spanish...

Furthering their burgeoning status as the most auteur-happy studio in contemporary American cinema, Amazon Studios have struck another deal with Jill Soloway, creator of their hit series Transparent. Per Variety, she’ll be writing and directing a new feature, Ten Aker Wood, which is described as “a coming-of-age story [centering] on a woman in a failing marriage who leaves Los Angeles to live on a pot farm in Northern California.” Further details are scant, save for the notice that a romance develops — and, on Soloway’s part, the story bears autobiographical components.

Amazon’s also establishing projects with Barry Levinson (concerning “the Los Angeles comedy scene of the 1960s and ’70s”) and The Savages‘ Tamara Jenkins. She’ll helm Private Life, “about a woman in her 40s who goes to extremes to have a child,” while Tom Kuntz is to direct Desired Moments, which, as written by Griffin Creech, follows “a lonely TV station employee.

Queen of Spain

Cary Elwes is set to co-star opposite Penelope Cruz in Fernando Trueba's Spanish-language comedy-drama film "The Queen of Spain". Cruz is also exec producing this sequel to 1998s "The Girl of Your Dreams".

Cruz will play film star Macarena Granada, who flees the glitz and glamour of 1950s Hollywood to return to her roots in Madrid - where she has signed on to star in an epic Hollywood film. Elwes will play Gary Jones, an American movie star cast opposite Cruz's character. [Source: Variety]

Twin Peaks

Patrick Fischler ("Hail Caesar") and David Dastmalchian ("Ant-Man") have joined the cast of the new season of "Twin Peaks" on Showtime. David Lynch is helming all the episodes which are scheduled to air early 2017.

The pair would join others new to the revived series including Amanda Seyfried, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Laura Dern, Robert Knepper, James Belushi, Tom Sizemore, Balthazar Getty,...

Mandy Patinkin has signed on for a supporting role in Fernando Trueba's The Queen of Spain. Penelope Cruz stars in the Spanish-language film that centers on a famous movie star who flees the glitz and glamour of 1950s Hollywood to return to her roots in Madrid. The Homeland star will play a fictitious American screenwriter who works on the film starring Cruz's character. Cruz will play Macarena Granada, an imaginary Spanish actress of the 1930s who first appeared in Trueba and Cruz's previous collaboration, The Girl of Your Dreams. Queen of Spain marks Cruz's third teaming with Trueba. Their first

read more...

Spain and Hungary shoot readied for sequel to The Girl Of Your Dreams; additional cast includes Clive Revill (Avanti!).

Director Fernando Trueba (Chico & Rita) is readying Spanish comedy-drama The Queen Of Spain (La Reina De España) for a February shoot.

Produced by Trueba’s Fernando Trueba PC and Atresmedia Cine, shoot is due to get underway in Hungary at the end of February and carry on in Spain in April. Post-production is due to be finalised late 2016 or early 2017.

The feature marks the third collaboration between Oscar-winning writer-director Trueba (Belle Époque) and Oscar-winner Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), following their work together on Belle Epoque and 1998 film The Girl Of Your Dreams, the latter serving as a prequel to The Queen Of Spain.

In The Girl Of Your Dreams Cruz played Macarena Granada, an imaginary Spanish actress of the 1930’s who goes to Nazi Germany to shoot a coproduction. At the end of the film she flees the country...

Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba has revealed further details of The Queen Of Spain (La Reina De Espana), the new comedy drama he is planning to make with Spanish star and fellow Oscar winner Penelope Cruz.

The film is a follow-up to The Girl Of Your Dreams (2000), the Goya-award winning feature about a Spanish film crew shooting a film at Ufa Studios in late 1930s Nazi-era Berlin.

The other stars of the original film, among them Jorge Sanz and Santiago Segura, have also agreed to appear in the film and there is now a completed script.

Trueba talked about the project when giving the Binger/Screen International interview at the Holland Film Meeting in Utrecht on Friday evening.

The new film is set in the Franco-era Spain of the 1950s - as big American film companies begin to come to the country to shoot runaway productions like El Cid and The Fall Of The Roman Empire.

“One...

So! You’ve had your eye on a certain lady for some time now but don’t quite know how to proceed? Fear not, basement dwellers – you’ve come to the right place!

While some guys are born knowing how to get women falling for them left, right and centre, sadly this is not common knowledge and some need a helping hand. This is where I come in. There’s a lot to be said for using films as a playbook for dealing with the ladies. It wouldn’t be the greatest idea to use anything from movies like Carrie as a guide but thankfully I’ve sorted through the rabble and assembled a few tips for you.

Sit back, relax and let me take you on a journey that will hopefully end up with you as the leading man.

Let’s begin, gentle reader…

The post 10 Tips To Land...

Penelope Cruz once said, "The most difficult thing in the world is to start a career known only for your looks, and then to try to become a serious actress. No one will take you seriously once you are known as the pretty woman." But with her thick, dark hair, big, brown eyes and bright smile, it's pretty hard to not typecast her as the beauty she naturally is.

Born in Madrid to hairdresser Encarna and retailer Eduardo, Cruz started prepping for the spotlight at a tender age as a classically trained ballerina. As a teenager, she worked her way into acting hosting Spanish TV shows and later won a Goya Award for her performance in "The Girl of Your Dreams" before transitioning to American cinema in "All The Pretty Horses," "Blow" and "Sahara."

Known for portraying sensual yet strong female characters, these traits are ever-present in Cruz's red carpet style.

HollywoodNews.com: Our selected celebrity to be included in our “Hot Hollywood Celebrity Photo Gallery of the Day” is Penelope Cruz.

Penelope Cruz ◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14

Penelope Cruz - "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" Madrid Premiere - Arrivals - Villamagna Hotel - Madrid, Spain

◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14

Penelope Cruz - "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" Madrid Premiere - Arrivals - Villamagna Hotel - Madrid, Spain

Penélope Cruz Sánchez (born April 28, 1974) is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón (1992), to critical acclaim. Her subsequent roles in the 1990s and 2000s included Open Your Eyes (1997), The Hi-Lo Country (1999), The Girl of Your Dreams (2000) and Woman on Top (2000). Cruz achieved recognition for her lead roles in Vanilla Sky and Blow. Both films were released in 2001 and were commercially successful worldwide.