it Is difficult to find a superhero more Spanish name (Juan Lopez), character (ego-clueless), nature (parody) and aspect (bigotazo office clerk) that Superlópez. And yet, this comic book character, created in 1973 by cartoonist Jan and that he met his best albums with the screenwriter Efepé, has not arrived to the cinema until today. Have been two decades in which Superlópez has gone by different creators and producers, until finally comes the version of Javier Ruiz Caldera, with the screenplay by Borja Cobeaga and Diego San José. They have fulfilled the dream of thousands of españolitos: fly to Superlópez.
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In 1991, a young lad that he was in BUP had an epiphany way to class, crossing the Castellana in Madrid. “Why don’t you adapt a comic-Spanish film with actors of flesh and bone? And why not The week-long, Superlópez, the first comic book that I had?”, he thought Nicolas Matji, that sucked the film in the house (he is the son of director and producer). But I had neither age nor money nor experience. The first two things accomplished in 1997, at the end of the university. “I went through again the idea and I jumped”. In 1999, Matji picked up money that had been given to them by the end of the race, called Ediciones B and boldly asked for the rights. “It was a lot of money for me, although in reality it was not so much”. Bought a fax machine to be able to negotiate, he asked his father, Manolo Matji, professor of screenwriting from the Film School of the Community of Madrid, if he had any student that would help in the script (recommended two: Gorka Magallón and Mariano Baselga) and pulled forward.
they Worked four years on it. “It was a wonderful enjoyment,” recalls Magallón. “With the rights and two screenwriters, and after a year and a half in it, I presented myself at Sogecine, then a producer powerful, and we signed a contract for joint development”, says the producer. “In reality, we were never near it.” Because, according to other sources, Sogecine were more interested in The great adventure of Mortadelo and Filemón (2003), of Javier Fesser. “Fesser was my first choice as director. Do you have another? Juanma Bajo Ulloa and Alex de la Iglesia. But Fesser told me that was with your movie”. Magallon describes the script, of which there were more than seven versions: “Started as well: Lopez is a clerical blandness. One day he comes his mother to his home in Parchelona to tell him that his father has died and that in reality the kid is an alien that came to Earth with a suit that gives him superpowers. And it is the mother that wants the son to be a superhero”. Finally, they ended up making a story of your own, away from The week more long. “We never thought of an actor [Matji yes points to Javier Camera], although we joked that the perfect was Aznar”.
expand photo ‘Story board’ of the arrival of the planet Chitón of a baby with a mustache that will break a finger to his putative father.
For Matji, what attraction was “the thief that stole facades, the demonstration against the superhero, and that was Lopez who will save the world and not Superlópez”. In this process, a fan of the character asked to be able to collaborate: Enrique Gato. “He did a short animation impressive. It’s funny, I wanted Sahabet to make it with actors and I have finishing as a producer of animation with another character parody created by Cat: Tadeo Jones”.
In November 2003, explodes the dream: Sogecine communicate that you do not continue with the project. “With the end of the war between Canal Satélite Digital and Vía Digital are the funding ends in Sogecine,” says Matji. The producer tries one last maneuver desperate: they ask for help to convince Ediciones B that will renew the contract. It is denied and on top of your contact at the publisher Blanca Rosa Roca, is to farewell the day before that Matji you were to travel to Barcelona. “Mortadelo and Philemon gave a hit at the box office”, account Matji, and Antonio Asensio, who starts to send in the Grupo Zeta, owner of Editions B, ata, in short the rights.
Asensio, president of Grupo Zeta, recalls: “Paco Ramos, who was in Zeta Audiovisual, promoted the project since that time. We were always clear that Anacleto go first, because there was less pressure and we could try things on, and Superlópez after. We want to manage our brands as best as possible”. Asensio note that only in some case (Captain Thunder) have ceded rights, because from the Group Zeta saw no clear “version made with less than ten million euros”. Another filmmaker capital in this second stage is Alex of the Church, that he wanted to be the filmmaker who did fly to Superlópez, and that gathered at a dinner to Asensio and Paolo Vasile, ceo of Telecinco: thus came into this project the string. “But,” says Asensio, “it’s complicated, that there are two brands in a movie, and Superlópez and the Church are two very powerful”. The aforementioned does not want to speak much of a “project that’s very dear with a final very painful”, in which he was held during “seven years” and that drove the name of two actors: José Mota and Eduardo Gomez. It came out at the end of 2013.
The illusion of Ruiz Caldera
From Telecinco Cinema, its ceo, Ghislain Barrois, and its director general, Álvaro Augustin, remind us that the negotiation with the Church “did not come to fruition”. And that quickly emerged in 2014 the name of Javier Ruiz Caldera, “that was in the pre-production of Anacleto”. The same Of the Church says that if he has not been able to, “the best option is Javi”. Barrois defined: “Javi handles like nobody’s comedy, and takes out oil from where there is fracking film”. Because as they feature the producers: “With the price of this movie, made in Hollywood the initial sequence of one of theirs”. According to industry sources, the budget of Superlópez round seven million euros, and can be viewed on 500 screens.
expand photo lab Design in Chitón for ‘Superlópez’.
“In 2007, I left a girlfriend, and the next day, Jack Bayonne, he saw me depressed and took me to the Malaga film festival”, kicks off Ruiz Caldera your trip to Superlópez. “I had only done shorts. However, there, a producer offered me to make my debut with Zipi and Zape. I wanted to do was Superlópez. I replied that the character had a lot of girlfriends and that was a movie face because, and sometimes we forget, the protagonist flies”. Ruiz Caldera laughs: “I Refused to Zipi and Zape. I spent a pimp because it was before the crisis”. In 2010, Caldera, Cobeaga and San Jose were a few months, the hand palm, for the project. In vain. “And when Anacleto opened the door, I said to myself: ‘This is mine’. A patadón we got the three. And we endure, because this is a project that always has slumped”. With them comes also Dani Rovira as the protagonist. “To me”; says the directr, “I spoke of him without having finished even the shooting of Eight surnames basques, and I found it very good.”
Will there be second part? From Telecinco hear a “yes” that sounds resounding. Asensio points even towards a series or a film of animation. What with his companions, the Supergroup, the Avengers patriotic? It is not so clear, because the creator of these heroes is the writer Efepé, not Jan. “And I have rights!”, says Matji, that with this pirouette end returns to the wake of superman’s most cani.
