The co-founders of El Estudio, the fast-rising production powerhouse based in Mexico, Spain and the US, have announced three key promotions and revealed growth plans as they prepare to celebrate the company’s first two years in San Sebastian.
Producers Pablo Cruz and Enrique López Lavigne and veteran studio executive Diego Suarez Chialvo have promoted Giulia Cardamone to VP of development, Abel Cruz to VP of production, and Pablo Fernández Masó to VP of operations.
California-based Giulia Cardamone started as an assistant to Cruz before she moved up the ladder to co-ordinate the development team, run El Estudio’s television unit, and eventually become head of development.
Abel Cruz has served as producer or executive producer on El Estudio’s new YA thriller series Marea Alta and comedy series Pena Ajena, both of which are streaming on ViX+, TelevisaUnivision’s new Spanish-language premium platform in Latin America and the US. Based in Mexico City, he now oversees film and television productions from Spain and Mexico.
Pablo Fernández Masó serves as head of business and legal affairs at El Estudio and is based in Madrid.
The three executives have worked for El Estudio on historical feature Dance Of The 41, the 2021 Ariel-winning story about Ignacio de la Torre, a businessman who married the Mexican president’s daughter in the 19th century – as well as documentary series The Taco Chronicles at Netflix, and the docu-reality show Siendo Pampita at Paramount+.
Noting their “vital contributions”, El Estudio CEO Suarez, who spent 11 years at Fox Television Studios and worked at Sony Pictures International Productions under Sanford Panitch, Sony’s president of the motion picture group, says: “I’m so grateful for how this came together internally, and for the approach and attitude that Giulia, Abel, Pablo and the whole team embraced at a hugely busy time.”
Spotting an opportunity
Cruz, Suarez and Lopez Lavigne. whose producer credits include A Monster Calls and The Impossible, first mooted the idea of forming a company a few years ago in San Sebastian. “It holds a very special place in our hearts,” says Cruz of the Basque city. They saw how Spanish-language content and Mexican production were on the rise and realised the proliferation of streaming sites meant the platforms would be crying out for content.
They launched El Estudio in February 2020 backed by MediaNET, the asset management firm that owns the Lantica Media studio facility in Dominican Republic. Days after launch the pandemic arrived, forcing a focus on development as all production went on hold.
They have not been idle. “We’re almost two and a half years old and we are releasing this year almost 10 projects,” says Cruz, who co-founded Canana with Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal and whose many producing credits include Sin Nombre, Miss Bala, Zama, and Dance Of The 41.
El Estudio now operates two business units covering Europe and the Americas, with offices in Madrid, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires. The company makes mostly Spanish-language content, of which Mexican titles account for roughly 70% of output.
“It’s the craziest we’ve ever seen, it’s out of control,” laughs Cruz. “Every day a new production company opens, there’s a new streamer hiring or somebody is merging. Knowing that the US market is slowing down in a major way, the only places for [subscriber] growth are outside of the US and one nearby market is Mexico where about 10 to 15m subscribers are up for grabs.”
El Estudio’s comedy musical Voy A Pasármelo Bien opened theatrically via Sony in Spain last month, while Cinepolis handled the Mexican theatrical release of Dance Of The 41, which is now screening on Netflix.
Mexican-French true-crime docuseries A Kidnapping Scandal: The Florence Cassez Affair (El Caso Cassez Vallarta) has embedded itself in Netflix’s Mexican TV top 10 for the past two weeks. The show about the eponymous French woman convicted of belonging to the Mexican kidnapping gang Los Zodiacos has become a national talking point and reportedly counts president Andrés Manuel López Obrador among its viewers.
El Estudio has more than 20 projects in development at streamers, networks and studios and more than 60 in development internally. Upcoming content includes Rob Schneider’s feature directing debut Amor Es Amor for Paramount+; Paco Plaza’s Netflix horror film Sister Death (Hermana Muerte), a prequel to TIFF 2017 selection Veronica; and Al Grito De Guerra, a documentary about the Mexican football team that will debut on ViX+ on October 13.
English-language projects
The company also has several English-language projects in the works aimed at the English-speaking Latino market in the US. One is a show based on the popular 1980s Los Angeles Latino nightclub El Azteca. “It was like Studio 54 for Mexicans in Los Angeles,” says Cruz. “The show’s about the family that ran it. This is not the story of people crossing the border that we’re all tired of. Mexicans can also own nightclubs and run businesses like this.”
The company is adapting Pablo Trapero’s 2010 film Carancho which starred Ricardo Darin as an ambulance-chasing lawyer who falls for a paramedic. Darin serves as executive producer on what will be an English-language series set in Los Angeles or Chicago. The actor is also involved on fact-based series Galimberti, about the larger-than-life Argentinian urban guerrilla and businessman Rodolfo Galimberti.
“We never dreamed we’d be this prolific at this stage of our story,” says Suarez. “The reality is the pandemic changed everything. Initially our strategy was to be more like a lot more like a studio and try to keep IP and ownership, but we had to change drastically when the Covid tsunami came and we are selling more originals than we’d planned. We put as much money as we could from our investor into development.”
CAA-represented El Estudio finances its own development projects and plans to move into production finance. “It’s the second stage for us so we try to keep as much of the IP as possible where we can sell pieces of it,” adds Suarez.
“Now the company is reaching maturity and we’re crewing up for the third and fourth years,” notes Cruz. “We’re also looking for partners to expand the business. Distribution is a key part for sure and we’re on the look-out for a partner.”
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