Leading Spanish production outfit Tornasol Films will bring Claudia Pineiro's award-winning novel Thursday's Widows (Las Viudas De Los Jueves) to the big screen.

Argentinian director Marcelo Pinyero will direct Thursday's Widows, which follows the rather unusual lives of wealthy families living in Altos De La Cascada, a suburb on the outskirts of Buenos Aires full of gated houses.

The film will track how their lives are transformed from the economic boom of the early 1990's to the country's financial collapse in 2001, taking in several controversial issues such as wife beating, anti-semitism and strange sexual preferences along the way.

'Shooting is set to get underway in March in Argentina and at the Ciudad De La Luz studios (in Alicante, Spain),' Tornasol Film's founder Gerardo Herrero told ScreenDaily.

Tornasol signed an agreement last year with the Alicante based studio to shoot at least 16 films there until 2011, spending $25m (Eu18m) to $42m (Eu30m) a year at the complex or in the surrounding Valencia region.

Tornasol also produced Marcelo Pinyero's previous film, The Method (El Metodo), which won several awards, including two Goyas in 2006.

Latido Films will handle sales for Thursday's Widows.