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Mediapro’s New Boss: Laura Fernández Espeso On Her Day One Priorities, U.S. Production Ambitions & Penelope Cruz’s Slate
Grup Mediapro's new General Director Laura Fernandez Espeso on The Mediapro Studio's U.S. arm, Penelope Cruz's Moonlyon and Spanish production.
Having led the Spanish firm’s production wing to make films and shows for the likes of Prime Video, Netflix, Max, Disney+, ViX, Movistar Plus+, Atresmedia and RTVE, she has become one of the most powerful execs in Europe and Spanish-language media, even while Mediapro’s wider business faced tough challenges such as falling revenues during the global pandemic. Following a tricky financial few years when a contract with France’s Ligue 1 collapsed and the Covid-19 pandemic bit into earnings, Mediapro has diversified its focus and now has a growing TV and film production arm that counts the likes of Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, the BBC and ZDF’s Famous Five series, Ran Telem’s multi-language psychological thriller The Head and Daniel Burman’s Latin American drama Yosi, the Regretful Spy on its slate. Fernández Espeso points out that Mediapro has actually been in the English-language game for years, having co-produced the likes of Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight In Paris, but that Acosta’s team represents a “doubling down.” The company “chose L.A. as the base because we consider it be to the epicenter of major stories and productions worldwide,” she adds.
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