Shooting underway in Canary Islands on Calparsoro’s Invader

by Sergio Ríos Pérez

14/11/2011 - Having kicked off on November 2 in the Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the first leg of shooting is nearly complete on Daniel Calparsoro’s thriller Invader, based on Fernando Marías’s homonymous novel. Shooting will later relocate to La Coruña, where it will continue for another six weeks.

The film’s producer Jorge Pena has described it as “a thriller with large doses of action and a powerful political-war backdrop”. Its production framework is very similar to that of Cell 211 [trailer, film focus], which enjoyed enormous success among critics and audiences in 2009. Like that film, Invader is produced by Emma Lustres and Pena for Vaca Films and by Juan Gordon for Morena Films, together with state television network TVE and Paris-based Mandarin Cinema (which previously collaborated with Morena Films on Even the Rain [trailer, film focus]).

With an original, best-selling novel as its base, two production companies with a great ability to pull in audiences, a €5m budget and a very attractive cast (Alberto Ammann [pcitured], Antonio de la Torre, Karra Elejalde, Inma Cuesta), Invader has sparked expectations. “We’re convinced that it can be one of next year’s big films”, insisted Pena.

Scripted by Javier Gullón and Jorge Arenillas, the film centres on Pablo, a Spanish military doctor who is posted on an international mission. After an attack that almost costs him his life, he returns home along with his wife and daughter. When his memory of events comes back, Pablo suspects that they are hiding information from him about the circumstances of the attack.

The film’s international sales agent is Filmax International, which presented the project at the recently closed edition of the AFM.

(Translated from Spanish)