Secuoya Content Group: How The Dynamic Company Behind ‘Zorro’ Plans To Bridge Hollywood & Spain With A New Era Of Content For The Global Market

EXCLUSIVE: There’s a well-known line from the Spanish poet Antonio Machado that’s acquainted to most Spaniards: “Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar,” which interprets as “Traveler, there is no such thing as a path. The trail is made by strolling.” 

If there’s one Spanish firm that’s determinedly paving the way in which for Spanish-language content material within the world sphere, it’s Secuoya Content material Group, a fully-fledged impartial studio that’s bidding to turn into a world vacation spot for content material, all whereas placing Spain on the map in an unprecedented means.  

The corporate counts Hollywood stalwarts Chris Albrecht and Ted Sarandos amongst its array of worldwide mates and the Netflix content material chief tells Deadline the streamer is dedicated to deepening its roots there. Former HBO, Starz and Legendary Tv exec Albrecht, in the meantime has partnered with Secuoya’s movie and TV content material manufacturing arm, Secuoya Studios, by means of his new banner Rubicon International Media and says they’re “forward of the curve.” 

Many might be conversant in Secuoya Group, which was based by Raul Berdonés in 2007, for housing Netflix’s European Manufacturing Hub in its extraordinary Madrid Content material Studios, positioned in Tres Cantos, the dormitory suburb 17 miles north of Madrid. It’s a sprawling advanced with 10 soundstages (and counting) throughout 140,000 sq. meters of area with eating places, an audiovisual college, housing, places of work, making it presently the second-largest manufacturing middle in Europe after the UK’s Pinewood Studios…and it’s set to get even larger. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tells Deadline that the amenities are taking part in a key position in consolidating Spain’s “distinguished position within the world AV trade.”

Secuoya Studios is coming off the again of launching its most formidable manufacturing up to now: the extremely anticipated trendy take of Zorro, directed by Cash Heist helmer Javier Qintas and starring Miguel Berardeau because the dashing vigilante created by Johnston McCulley. The ten-episode sequence launched on Amazon Prime Video within the U.S. and Latin America on January 19, and it’s debuting in Spain, Andorra and Portugal on the streamer on January 25. The sequence is touted as Spain’s greatest tv manufacturing up to now, sitting at $4 million per episode. Mediawan, which dealt with worldwide distribution for the sequence, has bought it to twenty-eight international locations already.  

Final summer time, in a bid to unfold its tentacles to the U.S., Secuoya Studios entered a strategic partnership with Rubicon International Media, the corporate arrange by Albrecht and Jane and the Virgin government producer Jorge Granier with an eye fixed to bridging Spanish and U.S. storytelling (extra on that later). 

When Deadline sits down with Berdonés and Secuoya Group CEO Pablo Jimeno together with Secuoya Studios President James Costos on a chilly and sunny December day at their headquarters to unpick how the corporate has quick turn into one of many driving forces of the Spanish-language manufacturing surge lately, what turns into rapidly obvious is the dimensions and tempo at which this firm is transferring.

“We aren’t your conventional manufacturing firm,” Berdonés says. “We’re actually a world studio and that’s what we’re specializing in.” 

Humble beginnings

Berdonés was born in Granada to a humble Andalucian household and obtained his first style of the tv trade on the age of 13, the place he began working half time as a digital camera operator. Passionate in regards to the world of TV, he give up college on the age of 16 to work in Madrid the place he quickly turned CEO of a servicing firm earlier than heading up VNews at main broadcaster Antena 3. 

Seeing a spot within the market for an impartial manufacturing companies firm, Berdonés based Secuoya Group in 2007 on the age of 28. He struck offers with Antena 3 earlier than diversifying into tv content material manufacturing in 2009. That very same yr he employed his former Antena 3 colleague Jimeno to hitch him on the brand new Secuoya journey. 

“He’s a founder like me,” says Berdonés. “I at all times say that Secuoya wouldn’t be what it’s with out Pablo as a result of I feel he’s the one who gives the soundness and belief. I like technique however he’s somebody who gives the construction and I feel he’s a real chief. He makes up for my lack of coaching – I name it the ‘Coca-Cola’ method.”

Certainly, the 2 complement one another very properly: Berdonés being the enthusiastic and spirited entrepreneur whereas Jimeno is extra reserved, giving cautious responses. Since they began working collectively, the corporate has gone by means of many alternative phases. Beginning as a companies firm, the enterprise is now 70% content material and 30% companies. “The mannequin has fully modified since we began,” says Jimeno.

The corporate has places of work in Spain and Los Angeles in addition to Miami, the place former HBO and Sony Photos exec Sergio Pizzolante runs its worldwide gross sales operation Secuoya Studios Business and Distribution. It additionally now has tentacles in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and shortly, Panama.

Final yr, Berdonés and Jimeno purchased again 55% of the corporate from traders, which means the duo have 80% possession of Secuoya Group and thus management. That transfer makes the corporate one of many solely impartial worldwide content material teams owned by Spanish shareholders. 

Development ambitions

“We’ve at all times mentioned that we wished to be a very powerful Spanish-speaking studio on the earth and that’s what we’re working in the direction of,” says Berdonés. “However, in fact, we’re at all times English as a result of to be able to actually be a studio, as we perceive it, it’s good to have that necessary facet of English language.” 

In 2020, the corporate employed esteemed exec Costos, former HBO VP of worldwide licensing and retail, as President Secuoya Studios. Costos, who is predicated in L.A., had served as a U.S. ambassador to Spain from 2013-2017 below President Barack Obama’s administration. His information and connections in Hollywood coupled together with his ties to Spain made him an ideal conduit to bridge Spain to the U.S. Costos is a revered determine in Spain and has a wealth of data and large affection for the nation. After he stepped down from his diplomatic work, the Spanish Movie Fee named him an honorary ambassador for his efforts at connecting Spanish and U.S. firms. 

Whereas at HBO, Costos helped safe a Spanish shoot for Sport of Thrones, an enormous coup for the native market. He had shut ties to Albrecht and labored with him whereas the latter was headed up HBO. This relationship finally ignited Secuoya’s latest settlement with Rubicon, which Albrecht and Jane and the Virgin exec producer Jorge Granier set as much as mixture main IP from Latin America and Spain. By the deal, Secuoya Studios will present improvement funding and deficit financing for choose Rubicon International Media tasks. The primary venture out of the gates is Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s Spanish and English-language drama Prey Earlier than You Eat about an anti-hero on the run as life goes sideways in New York Metropolis.

“It’s actually onerous for a Spanish firm to have entry to Hollywood and to get the appropriate expertise or the appropriate author however with Chris and I in our L.A. workplace, we have now that means,” says Costos, who stresses that he’s “not a artistic”. “It’s very symbiotic and having Chris and Jorge inside the household now brings the entire thing to a different degree. The truth that they’re already sourcing materials for us is much more thrilling.” 

For Berdonés, the Rubicon deal is vital to Secuoya’s worldwide technique. “The settlement with Chris and Jorge is nice as a result of we can develop huge tasks with them and I consider that’s going to supply visibility as properly within the English-speaking world.” 

When first launched to Secuoya, Albrecht says he “actually thought these guys are head of the curve.” 

“Spain is a vital market and it’s crucial to our general technique – not that the whole lot must be by means of Secuoya – however it offers us so many benefits once we’re going right into a venture to have an enormous firm in Spain who’s investing in us and creating programming that they’ll then produce of their amenities,” says Albrecht. “They’re specialists at serving to us entry the gentle cash advantages which might be obtainable in Spain and have super expertise taking pictures in every single place.” 

For Miami-based Granier, who has shut ties to Pizzolante, he was drawn to the spectacular scale at which Secuoya had been in a position to ship big-ticket IP sequence Zorro. 

“Zorro gave us a real image of what Secuoya might do,” says Granier. “It’s this worldwide co-production performed in Spain for the U.S. within the 1800s and it’s actually spectacular. The way in which they bought it was attention-grabbing by promoting it to Amazon within the U.S. and Latin America after which having a Spanish broadcaster concerned as properly. That’s the type of mannequin we’re doing however in a means that’s language agnostic.” 

Amongst its different worldwide offers, Secuoya has an settlement with Turkish producer Ay Yapim to adapt Turkish IP for the Spanish-speaking world. This contains an adaptation of Turkish hit Courageous and Stunning, which aired in additional than 60 international locations and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2018. Their Spanish model has already bought in Spain, all of Latin America and the U.S. and can now undergo its distribution pipeline. “Simply with Spain and North America, the figures have been adequate to start out manufacturing,” says Berdonés. “Turkish sequence are a phenomenon which have labored in every single place.”

Massive IP & Inventive Freedom

For Secuoya Studios, its main goal is to be one of the crucial necessary Spanish-speaking studios on the earth and to do this it wanted two issues: to rent prime artistic minds within the enterprise and a transfer towards securing big-ticket IP sequence. Shortly after hiring Costos in 2020, the corporate introduced in one among Spain’s most respected TV execs, David Martinez, as Head of Fiction for its premium sequence division. Martinez, is among the figureheads liable for the upsurge of high-end Spanish tv drama after stints at public broadcaster RTVE, the place he commissioned tasks together with Desaparecida and Gran Reserva from Ramón Campos, and Mediaset España.

“Crucial factor at Secuoya, I consider, is that we have now wonderful artistic folks,” says Berdonés. “David is a improbable instance of this – he’s a loopy visionary and an excellent creator.”

Martinez, who exec produces Zorro together with Zorro Productions founder and John Gertz (who produced The Masks of Zorro and The Legend of Zorro movies), says what makes Secuoya particular is its independence, its means to foster relationships with expertise whereas sustaining artistic freedom, one thing he believes units them aside from larger companies. 

“We’ve nearer relationships with the creatives,” he says. “I’m a creator myself – I come from a writers’ room so I perceive the way it all works. That is unimaginable to do with a platform. We’re a premium vacation spot for expertise as a result of they’ll understand their very own potential by not having the affect of an algorithm.” 

Costos agrees: “We wish to be the vacation spot for expertise. We all know how troublesome it’s if you get a present commissioned and each government at each studio platform goes to have 10 folks giving notes, altering their concept, and never providing you with the artistic freedom to do your present your means. It’s not that we’re not crucial about our personal issues – we do take notes and we do give notes however we’re not going to pressure somebody based mostly upon an algorithm.” 

He attracts parallels to Secuoya with HBO again when he used to work at that U.S. firm with Albrecht. “HBO was recognized for being a vacation spot for expertise as a result of they didn’t get in the way in which of issues. They handled expertise and showrunners and their concepts with respect.”

Berdonés and Jimeno pleasure themselves on taking a again seat on the subject of artistic choices, entrusting the folks they rent to do what they do greatest. “We don’t determine the way it’s going to be performed,” says Berdonés. “The artistic groups make these choices, and so they have possession of these choices. I consider that’s a part of the success as a result of that’s what permits us to do one thing nice, which additionally means writers and creatives wish to work with us.” 

Secuoya Studios simply employed former Sony Photos Tv exec Brendan Fitzgerald to the newly created place of CEO. The corporate has six totally different areas, every headed up by an exec: along with Martinez heading up premium sequence there’s Eduardo Galdo, Head of Lengthy Format Sequence; Eduardo Campoy who runs the options division; Anna Cassina who runs worldwide manufacturing companies; its VFX companies division XReality, run by Ignacio Lacosta; and unscripted, which is presently within the technique of a change of management. 

Final yr, the corporate invested $200 million in content material and it’s a quantity that grows yearly says Berdonés, including that “our goal is to develop to $400 million within the subsequent three years.”  

With this quantity in thoughts, the corporate will proceed to have an urge for food for big-ticket IP with tasks like Zorro reflective of the dimensions at which the corporate needs to provide. 

“It is a huge manufacturing for us,” says Berdonés. “It’s high-quality and it’s how we wish all of our productions to look as a result of ultimately, we’re looking for world productions that work in a really pure means on either side of the Atlantic.” 

The corporate produces near 1,500 hours of tv per yr in premium doc sequence, leisure, journey, regional information and extra. The corporate is presently in improvement on greater than 20 tasks throughout restricted sequence, ongoing reveals movie and unscripted. Productions within the pipeline for subsequent yr embody two new TV tasks with William Levy’s manufacturing firm (Secuoya beforehand co-produced Levy’s dramatic thriller Montecristo with Pantaya), Los 39, a historic sequence about Spaniards deserted by explorer Christopher Columbus on the island of La Española and Terra Alta, an adaptation of the bestselling novel by Javier Cercas. 

Within the movie area, its seeking to make 5 to eight movies per yr together with upcoming El Director, an upcoming co-production with Beta Fiction Spain, Fremantle, and Play Time, which is directed by Dani de la Orden and based mostly on the guide by David Jiménez. It’s additionally making Solos, based mostly on the literary success of Paloma Bravo, directed by María Pulido. 

Content material Metropolis World

It wasn’t till 2017 that the primary brick was put down for Madrid Content material Metropolis in Tres Cantos and the thought, say Berdonés and Jimeno, was to construct an formidable manufacturing hub that might not solely reply the demand for manufacturing amenities and studio area, however might additionally combine the trade with a college. Having a college on the grounds meant that they may prepare the subsequent era of the trade and be certain that pipelines have been prepared to satisfy the demand for high-end Spanish language content material.  

“We’re coaching folks in the true world, and we are able to discover expertise,” says Jimeno. “It’s not a theoretical mannequin – it really works. The second college students begin learning on the college, they begin engaged on their very own productions.” 

On a visit to L.A. in 2018, Berdonés met with Netflix’s VP of Latin American Content material Francisco Ramos (or Paco Ramos as he’s recognized within the trade) and informed him he was “constructing one thing huge in Spain”. Initially, the primary section of Madrid Content material Metropolis, a $200 million venture constructed by means of Secuoya’s sister agency Roots Group, was to construct phases for Secuoya’s personal productions and Berdonés admits he wasn’t contemplating long-term tenants on the positioning. 

Ramos referred to as Berdonés quickly after to come back and check out the positioning. “We had a bus full of individuals and we hadn’t constructed something – none of this existed,” Berdonés says gestering to the surface heaps. “We have been solely constructing three phases right here initially. So, we gave them a vest and a hat, and we met in a hut, and it was raining however we informed them what we have been doing right here. In 24 hours, we obtained a letter from them saying they wished to maintain the entire advanced in exclusivity for a few years and determined that this needed to be their manufacturing hub in Europe.” 

Whereas Netflix was already Spain as a possible base for its European manufacturing hub, Berdonés likes to assume that Secuoya contributed a bit to that call. Initially Netflix took 5 soundstages however doubled that studio capability as Secuoya grew and the U.S. streaming big now operates 10 soundstages at Secuoya.

“The whole lot you’re seeing at this time goes to be with them for a few years,” says Berdonés. The corporate hopes to finish the construct on an additional 12 phases earlier than the top of 2024 and Berdonés says within the contract they made positive “we saved a few of these phases for us.” 

“For the final 4 years we have now referred to as Tres Cantos at Madrid Content material Metropolis our dwelling,” Ted Sarandos tells Deadline. “As President of Secuoya Studios, James [Costos] and his workforce run a world class manufacturing facility that hosts a few of the greatest Netflix productions together with Élite, KAOS and the upcoming Berlin and Society of the Snow. We’re additionally dedicated to telling nice Spanish tales and stay up for deepening our roots there.” 

Jimeno says that Netflix has undoubtedly helped Secuoya Studios develop – “they supply the soundness however the enterprise we have now with them shouldn’t be our essential consumer. In actual property they’re our essential consumer, however not in manufacturing.” 

Berdonés provides, “Netflix is barely a tenant right here. They’re a vital tentant however nonetheless a tenant.” 

Since its inception, Madrid Content material Metropolis has been integral in making Spain right into a world class vacation spot for worldwide productions and expertise. In 2021, after months of trade talks on the right way to bolster the trade, Prime Minster Sanchez introduced he wished to show Spain into the “Hollywood of Europe” and launched a plan to take a position €1.6 billion to ramp up the audiovisual sector between 2021 and 2025. 

Sanchez noticed the chance within the sector and knew that it might play an necessary position in Spain’s post-pandemic restoration. Corporations all over the world have been searching for most cost-effective methods to provide content material and Spain might provide that. 

“Our purpose is to consolidate Spain’s distinguished position within the world AV trade as a platform for innovation and coaching to draw world expertise, thus creating jobs and selling financial prosperity,” Sanchez tells Deadline. “Madrid Content material Metropolis stands as a superb instance of this transformation.” 

At a nationwide degree, there’s a tax rebate of as much as 30% on a €1 million minimal spend however that rebate will increase in numerous areas: Within the Navarre area, it’s as much as 35%; within the Canary Islands as much as 54% and within the Biscay area as much as 60% (which is monetized with personal traders).  

And plans to develop past Madrid are already in play with Content material Cities set to be in-built Biscay, Guadalajara in Mexico, Bogotá in Columbia, and Lisbon in Portugal. Whereas they’re all at totally different phases, Berdonés and Jimeno count on the construct for Guadalajara to start out on the finish of this yr whereas Lisbon and Bogatá will start in 2025. Every could have a college, soundstages and amenities and they’re already in dialogue for one “main” tenant at every vacation spot. 

Berdonés says, “We wish to take the success of Content material Metropolis to different territories and consolidate ourselves as one of many largest audiovisual studios on the earth.”