Protagonist Pictures recently acquired a comedy entitled Official Competition, which will star Spanish household names Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz according to Deadline. A Spanish-language film, Official Competition will feature an Argentinian duo at the director’s chair, as Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat are set to helm the project. The duo are quite renowned for their 2016 Venice Competition winner The Distinguished Citizen.
Banderas and Cruz are no stranger to working together, as the two recently paired up on Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory, to which the former was nominated for two Oscars last weekend. In Official Competition, Cruz will portray a famous director named Lola Cuevas, who is hired by a wealthy entrepreneur that, out of impulse, opts to develop a great film. Banderas will portray a Hollywood womanizer named Félix Rivero opposite Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, best known for his work in The Distinguished Citizen and Wild Tales, as an extreme theater actor named Iván Torres.
Andrés Duprat, who also worked on The Distinguished Citizen, will also contribute to the film’s screenplay alongside Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. Production on Official Competition is scheduled to commence on February 26, 2020 in Spain. Protagonist Pictures will be tasked with the film’s worldwide distribution rights.