Pedro Almodovar helped launch the international careers of several Spanish actors who are now Hollywood legends, including Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Now the celebrated filmmaker says he’s toying with the idea of making his first movie in English.
The Academy Award-winning Spaniard has always remained deeply attached to his homeland, and none of his 18 films has been set beyond its borders.
That could change if one of three projects currently in development comes to fruition.
“There’s a script that … could perhaps become my first project in English,” Almodovar said in an interview at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was promoting his latest movie, horror thriller “The Skin I Live In.”
“I’m writing it in Spanish but I’ve spoken to an American writer about doing the English version.”
Almodovar declined to provide any details about the project, which he said is in the early stages of development.
“The Skin I Live In” — one of 20 movies competing for the top Palme d’Or prize at Cannes — marks the return of a Hollywood heartthrob who was a regular feature of Almodovar’s movies from the 1980s, Antonio Banderas. The two haven’t worked together since 1990’s “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”
In “The Skin,” Banderas actor breaks out the Latin Lover mold of his Hollywood work, playing an icy and calculating plastic surgeon bent on avenging the rape of his daughter. Banderas’ pared-down performance is among his strongest in recent memory.
Almodovar “wanted this character to always be under control, to never reveal the monster he has inside,” Banderas said. “This character with Pedro actually opened the door with me to a different turf.
“I’m going to be 51 this year and now I’m getting the possibility of doing characters I’ve never done before,” Banderas said.
Almodovar said he thought Banderas’ co-star, Elena Anaya, could follow in the footsteps of Almodovar muse, Penelope Cruz. In “The Skin,” Anaya delivers a zinger of a performance as a victim of the Banderas character’s Machiavellian plot.
“In addition to her youth and the fact she’s a beautiful girl, Elena isn’t afraid of any kind of scene,” said Almodovar.
“I think she’s the most open actress in this way that I’ve ever met. She can be in physical situations that are really atrocious,” like the movie’s brutal rape scene, and not blink, he said.
“She has the hardness necessary to handle really difficult scenes and the sensitivity to be able to transmit emotion in a really direct and immediate way,” said the filmmaker. “I don’t like to make comparisons, but I predict for Elena a future like that of Penelope in the U.S.”
Anaya has already had a taste of the experience of working in Hollywood, with her role as a vampire in the 2004 action flick “Van Helsing.” Though she said she had “lots of fun” on the project, Anaya said she’s not angling for roles in big-budget blockbusters.
Still, the doe-eyed 35-year-old said she’s not ruling anything out.
“You never know what kind of opportunities life holds in store,” she said. “It goes without saying that I’m super content and incredibly happy with the opportunity Pedro has given me here.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More