Dilip Kuner
PENELOPE Cruz has joined up with fellow Spanish superstar Antonio Banderas to resume shooting of one of the year’s biggest Spanish productions.
The cameras have started rolling again on the set of Official Competition, after filming was stopped in March after just eight days due to the coronavirus lockdown.
The high-profile movie, produced by Mediapro Studio, features a heavyweight cast. As well as two of Spain’s biggest stars, Argentinian Oscar Martinez, a former San Sebastian, Venice and Argentine Academy best actor award-winner also features.
The film focuses on Banderas and Martinez who play famous actors whose egos lead to an on set clash, with Cruz playing the film’s director.
Gaston Duprat, who is directing the film alongside Mariano Cohn, said: “Within all the negatives of interrupting a shoot, there was something positive: We had an unusually large amount of time to study the already-shot material, and to put under a microscope the screenplay for what is left to film.
“The material we already have is wonderful: Penelope, Antonio and Oscar are extraordinary. The scenes have what we wanted, an uncomfortable mix of tension and sarcasm in an aesthetic framework of great conceptual strength. We restarted filming with the certainty that we have something really powerful on our hands.”
Cohnadded: “In this film are the experiences and knowledge gained after so many years of shooting. The film has our DNA as directors, but also that of Penelope, Antonio and Oscar, as they generously contributed their own experiences. In this film, you will see an intense distillation of the universe that we know best: that of directors and actors trying to do one of the most unnatural and complex things, for me, in the world: Shooting a film.”
