Company that runs Spanish studio Ciudad de la Luz files for bankruptcy

The company said it was paid the $5.7m owed to it by the Valencia government, although the government claims that the amount is $3.2m. The studios are said to have a debt of $243m.

The collapse of Ciudad de la Luz comes at a moment when the Valencian Government itself is on the verge of bankruptcy. Last week, the Spanish State had to give a guarantee to the Deutsche Bank so it could face a $157m loan. 

The Generalitat wants to revoke its contract with Agua Amarga de Gestión and sell the Studios to a private company that could afford the payment of its debts. It has been said that Jaume Roure’s MediaPro or Vertice could be interested in the operation.

Agua Amarga has the right to exploit the studios until 2014 but the Generalitat claims that they have failed in their obligation of seeking new productions and has sued them. A judge will rule in that conflict. 

Once finished, the total cost of the studios will be $383m and recently $204m public funds were injected in order to avoid the current situation. 

Today, the production company Trivision has abandoned the shooting of the TV show L’Alqueria Blanca claiming that Canal 9, the public TV channel supported by the Generalitat, has not paid them since August 2010.

The Ciudad de la Luz studios facilities is one of the biggest in Europe. It has been the location for shooting of 59 films, such as Asterix at the Olympic Games, with a budget of $99m. Other shoots included Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro; Alex de la Iglesia’s The Last Circus; and Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible.

Ciudad de la Luz was bult under the patronage of Luis Garcia Berlanga.