Domingo Corral Moves From Movistar Plus+ to HBO Max
Domingo Corral, who ran original production at Movistar Plus+ for 11 years, has signed a production deal with HBO Max. A production deal means he will develop and make shows for the streaming service as an independent producer, not as a member of its staff.
Deadline reports that Corral talked about the arrangement in an exclusive interview at the MIA Market in Rome, the international trade fair where film and TV deals are negotiated. The deal was first announced in March at Series Mania, the television festival in France. Under it, he will work with Sarah Aubrey, an HBO Max originals executive, and Casey Bloys, who oversees programming for HBO and HBO Max, to create scripted television and film.
The first project is about the disappearance of Santiago Correla, a petty criminal known as El Nani, in Spain in the 1980s. Scripted means the stories are written in advance, as opposed to unscripted shows such as reality programmes.
Corral's career began at Turner Broadcasting, where he spent 15 years. He rose to general manager and senior vice president of Turner Iberia, overseeing CNN, TCM, Boing, Cartoon Network and TNT in Spain and Portugal. He joined Movistar in 2014. Movistar is owned by Telefonica, the Spanish telecoms group.
At Movistar, he was an executive producer of Sirat and oversaw its production. He also served as commissioner on La Bola Negra, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A commissioner is the executive who chooses which shows get made and funded.
His exit from Movistar drew public support. Close to 200 members of the Spanish film and TV industry signed an open letter backing him, and the signatories included director Pedro Almodovar and actress Penelope Cruz.
Corral has been promoting an idea he calls "quality mainstream". It is the belief that ambitious, high-quality concepts can also draw large audiences. He has discussed the idea in recent interviews, and Deadline has reported on his comments about gatekeepers who turn down more conservative projects.
For viewers, the move means the shows Corral now develops will appear on HBO Max rather than Movistar Plus+. For the industry, it is one more senior executive moving between Spain's major platforms and the global streamers that buy and make content there. What comes next will depend on which projects reach the screen, and when.
