11/10/2005

The filming of Los Borgia - the biggest film investment ever made by the Spanish TV broadcaster Antena 3 – will start on the 17th of October. With a budget of around 10 million euros (8 million from Antena 3 and 2 millon by the italian producers Guido and Maurizio De Angelis), the shooting of the new film by Antonio Hernández (Goya for the best original script for En la ciudad sin límites in 2001) will take place till the 22nd December in Italy and in some parts of Spain.

The Borgias became Italy's most powerful family when its patriarch, Rodrigo (originally Spanish), was nominated Alexandre VI in 1492. The Pope and his two sons, Cesar and Lucrecia, were the object of several historical researches through the centuries, none of them enough to clear the aura of intrigues and lies that always surrounded the members of the family. Standing aside from the legend seems to be the goal of the director, who stated his intention to "tell once again their story in a closer and more honest manner, with stronger historical rigour". An ambition shared by the person responsible for fiction from Antena 3, for whom the project is, furthermore, an occasion to ratify the channel's confidence in the Spanish film market and industry, without underestimating its artistic and cultural aspects.

The film stars Lluís Homar (The Bad Education) as Alexander VI, Sergio Peris-Mencheta (La Piel de la Terra) as César and María Valverde (Goya for the best promising actress for La flaqueza del bolchevique) as Lucrecia Borgia. Other well known actors such as Paz Vega, Roberto Enríquez and Ángela Molina also star in this major production, due to open in October 2006.