Director of one of the biggest titles at this year’s Málaga Film Festival, Daniel Guzmán breaks down Movistar Plus Original ‘Canallas.’
Few movies are as awaited at this year’s Málaga Festival as Daniel Guzman’s “Canallas” (“Monkey Business”) which world premieres in competition this March 19. It marks the follow-up by Guzmán, an acclaimed actor-turned writer-director, to his notable debut “Nothing in Return” which scored best picture, director and a Critics’ Prize at 2015’s Malaga Festival, going on to scoop Spanish Academy Goyas for new director and breakout actor, the latter for Miguel Herrán. “Canallas” also reps the second original movie production from Movistar Plus, as Spain’s industry looks to the pay TV/SVOD arm of telco giant Telefonica to co-produce some of the biggest movie plays in the country. Though the subject, setting and tone of “Canallas” could hardly be different from Movistar Plus’ debut movie outing, Alejandro Amenabar’s “While at War,” “Canallas” gives further clues to what kind of movies Movistar Plus is willing to sink money in. It’s clearly the work of an auteur, Guzmán typically meshing reality and fiction, casting a childhood friend, Joaquín González, as himself, a high flying entrepreneur – or so high imagines himself – still living with his mum in a high rise in a modest outer-periphery big city ‘burb. When González and his family – played by his real non-pro family – face eviction, he turns to childhood friends Brujo and Luismi for help. Things were already going wrong. Caught in their downward spiral of intrigue and incompetence, they now get radically worse. Sold by Vicente Canallas’ Film Factory and set to be released in Spain by Universal Pictures, “Canallas” targets a broad audience, like most all Movistar Plus fare, however upscale, casting Guzmán (“Under the Same Roof”) and the always watchable Luis Tosar, star of Spanish hits such as “Cell 211” and “Maixabel.
