Netflix Spain Chief Says “Hollywood Should Be Jealous” Of Nation’s Production Facilities – MIA Market
12.10.2023 - 16:05
/ deadline.com
“Hollywood should be jealous of what Spain is doing and our facilities allow for this,” Netflix Spain and Portugal boss Diego Ávalos proclaimed today.
Ávalos talked up the stunt work and set design on shows such as Netflix smash Money Heist on a panel of the streamer’s execs at the MIA Market, explaining that sound stages have doubled to 10 since last year and there is a post-production facility with “state-of-the-art technology that is leveraged by Netflix around the world.”
“In Money Heist there is a big museum explosion and that was a set built entirely to last two minutes before it exploded,” he added. “We have built sets that I would argue are above anything you have seen in Hollywood.”
Other nations are also jumping aboard these facilities, he added, flagging the likes of UK series Kaos shooting in Spain.
Speaking on a MIA panel yesterday, Mediawan boss Elisabeth D’Arvieu said European production has a “big competitive advantage” over America, as she singled out Spain, Italy and Belgium in particular.
Ávalos said part of his strategy is to world-build, pointing to upcoming Money Heist spin-off Berlin, which is in fact set in Paris.
Meanwhile, Netflix’s Italy chief Tinny Andreatta discussed how she wants to overcome national stereotypes rooted in the 1960s.
Andreatta acknowledged that the 1960s was a successful decade for Italian cinema but that this had “created stereotypes in our country.”
“Now the ambition is to launch a more modern, out-of-stereotype image of Italy,” she said.
In order to do this, Andreatta is commissioning shows for younger people, from the female gaze that are “complex and complicated” or about issues such as masculinity.
She flagged recent examples such as Matilda de Angelis-starrer Th