Alex de la Iglesia, Telecinco Cinema Re-Team for Fantasy Action-Adventure Film ‘Mandragora’

The master of the Spanish genre Álex de la Iglesia and Cinema Telecincothe production arm of the Mediaset España broadcast network, come together for the action-adventure fantasy film project “Mandrágora”.

De la Iglesia and Carolina Bang’s Madrid-based company Pokeepsie Films will produce “Mandrágora” with powerhouse Telecinco Cinema, the feature marking the high-profile Spanish director’s fifth joint project with the broadcaster.

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Set in 17th-century Spain, “Mandrágora” follows 15-year-old Hernán as he unearths a human-shaped root that he begins to feel an inexplicable attraction to. The horrific death of his parents at the hands of the troops of the Count of Torresnegras forces him and his new friend to flee to the nearby woods.

In their depths, along with terrifying monsters and legendary creatures, lives La Bruja, expert in black magic, who will house Hernán and Mandrágora, the root. With the help of Madariaga, a mercenary adventurer, they embark on a mission to end Torresnegras’ reign of terror forever.

De la Iglesia will direct and co-write the screenplay alongside Jelen Morales (“La pequeña Suiza”, “Un mal día lo tiene cualquiera”).

With ‘Mandrágora’, De la Iglesia, one of Spain’s greatest mainstream authors, returns to fantasy, one of his favorite film genres.

Coming out with 1995’s ‘Day of the Beast’, a milestone in Spanish cinema, De la Iglesia’s ‘The Last Circus’ (2010) won Best Director and Best Screenplay awards at the Venice Film Festival.

More recent films like “Witching & Bitching” (2013, €15 million -$15.29 million- at the Spanish box office), “My Big Night” (2015, $12.23 million) and the remake of the Italian film “Perfect Strangers” (2017, $20.39 million) cemented De la Iglesia’s status as often one of Spain’s greatest ratings directors.

Telecinco Cinema has also successfully bet on fantastic films of international projection and prestige such as “A Monster Calls” by JA Bayona, which brought in 26.70 million dollars in Spain, appearing in the Top 5 of the Spanish box office of all time, and “Pan’s Labyrinth” by Guillermo del Toro. which won three Oscars.

De la Iglesia and Telecinco Cinema have previously joined forces for “La habitación del niño”, part of the 2005 omnibus feature “Películas para no dormer”; Thriller in English “Oxford Crimes”, “Perfect Strangers” and road-movie “four is a crowdwhich is slated for a theatrical release in the fall by Sony Pictures.

Founded in 2009 by De la Iglesia and Bang, Pokeepsie has continued De la Iglesia’s commitment to genre films, through projects both as director and producer, with films such as “Los héroes del mal “, “Errementari” and “Perfect Strangers”. “as well as the horror-comedy series ’30 Coins’, which, co-written and directed by De la Iglesia, proved to be one of HBO’s best-received original premieres in Spain, and is currently filming its season 2 for HBO Max.

Pokeepsie has also recovered energetically behind a new generation of filmmakers such as Paul Urkijo (“Errementari”), Eduardo Casanova (“Pieles”, “La Piedad”) and Zoe Berriatúa (“Los héroes del mal”).

The production house announced in May 2020 an alliance with Sony Pictures and Amazon Prime Video to launch The fear collectiona collection of globally released horror films by Spanish filmmakers such as De la Iglesia himself and Jaume Balagueró(“[REC]”), among others.

One of Spain’s fastest growing film and television companies, Pokeepsie entered into a strategic partnership with Banijay Iberia in April to create high-end original series and drama, allowing Pokeepsie to join the great stable of Banijay Iberia companies in Spain and Portugal.

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