Valencia. last frustrated project of pedro almodovar Adaptation of the novel by Lucia Berlin, handbook for women’s hygiene, also the frustrated project of Ciudad de la Luz. filming what would be Manchego’s first major foray into Hollywood (he has made two short films in English, human voice and recently released strange way of life) was planned as one of the first shoots of the new phase of the Alicante complex.
He himself told this in the podcast Scriptdirector maria guerra, who explained that the production was “too big for him at the production level” and explained that it was being done mainly on sets “in Alicante”. Sources in Ciudad de la Luz confirmed the saying and explained that “they had been communicating the cancellation very gracefully for a long time”.
When asked by Guerra regarding the cancellation of the project, Almodovar explained: “I still want to make smaller films, in terms of budget, with fewer characters, in fewer locations, where I can delve into the characters and the characters. What do you say?” “I wrote the screenplay for Lucia Berlin (the adaptation), and I really liked it, but I didn’t see myself traveling so far to find it,” he said.
The project was supported by actress Cate Blanchett, who is going to produce the feature film, as she revealed during her visit to the Goya Awards held in Valencia in 2022. The idea was to finalize the project in order to start filming a few months later, but according to Almodovar’s version, the agendas of the actress and the director did not coincide.
Regarding the filming of Ciudad de la Luz, he said: “The problem would be with my back and so many places; The problem will also be with those actresses who were all stars and do not give you as much time for rehearsal as I ask for. There were many novelties: everything was from that period and everything was set (we were going to shoot in Alicante), and everything was made in a factory – the book, the glasses, etc. I am very passionate about it. Everything that appears in one of my films has been passed through my hands and selected from a pool of options. (…) It was planned to start in January last year, but (Blanchette) told me that she had to wait for me because she had projects throughout the year. So I sat back, wrote a script, made a short film and had a whole year to reflect.”
City of Light, already running but inactive
Since the announcement of the redecoration of the Ciudad de la Luz complex, there have been several discreet announcements about future filming that ultimately did not materialize. The first three films that were announced were cancelled, and only weeks before, the machinery was restarted with the filming of the miniseries. law of the sea, Hopefully there will be another big shoot this year.
In any case, it is expected that the studio will be revived with the signing of an agreement with Turisme Comunitat Valenciana, which will transfer the operations of the Regional Film Office with a clear structure that exists so far. On the other hand, the management team has yet to be defined, which will materialize after an unsuccessful search for an operations director, a telecommunications manager, another technician, another computer scientist and a customer coordinator.
