Madrid-based production house Alquimia Cinema's new slate of films reflects the increasing attractiveness of Spain as a marketplace for actors from across Latin America (particularly financially troubled Argentina), including Ricardo Darin (The Son Of The Bride, Nine Queens), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Intact), Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother) and Dario Grandinetti (Talk To Her).

Darin will star alongside Mexico's Diego Luna (And Your Mama Too, Frida) and Spain's Paz Vega (Sex And Lucia) in thriller Utopia for director Maria Ripoll (Tortilla Soup, The Man With Rain In His Shoes). The Euros 5.5m-6m film, set to roll May 20 in Spain, was co-scripted by Curro Royo and Juan Vicente Pozuelo (The Art Of Dying).

Following the release of Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her (Hable Con Ella), Grandinetti will lead the cast of Manuel Toledano's The Moon In George (La Luna En Jorge), a romantic comedy about a man who wakes up one day only able to speak in poetry. The Euros 2m film is set to shoot in September, followed in October by Miguel Bardem's Incautos, a Euros 3.3m thriller starring Argentine muse Cecilia Roth.

Finally, fresh from a competition screening in Berlin with Alquimia's Stones (Piedras), handled internationally by Summit Entertainment, newcomer Ramon Salazar will shoot The Dream Of The Siamese (El Sueno De Las Siamesas) with Stones leads Najwa Nimri and Angela Molina.

Alquimia head Francisco Ramos says he also hopes to co-produce at least two international films this year, the first of which is Argentine director Marcelo Pineyro's Kamchatka, a drama starring Sbaraglia and Nimri shooting in Argentina in April. Alquimia is currently awaiting release on Italian co-productions Callas Forever (Franco Zeffirelli) and Amnesia (Gabriele Salvatores), and French co-production Bloody Mallory (Julien Magnat).

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