Spanish public broadcaster RTVE has boarded 'Blanco,' a feature film reconstructing the 48 hours that held Spain in suspense after ETA abducted and killed a 29-year-old Basque politician in July 1997. Netflix and Universal Pictures International Spain are already attached, with RTVE announcing its participation on August 3, 2026, in the framework of the 30th anniversary of the assassination (RTVE; Variety).

Félix Viscarret, whose television series 'Patria' drew wide acclaim in 2020, directs. The film is produced by Kiko Martínez's Nadie es Perfecto and Eduardo Carneros-led Euskadi Movie, and budgeted at €8 million ($9.2 million), according to Variety.

The story centres on Miguel Ángel Blanco, a councillor for the conservative Partido Popular in the small Basque town of Ermua. ETA — the armed separatist group that waged a decades-long campaign of violence in pursuit of an independent Basque state — abducted him on July 10, 1997, demanded the transfer of imprisoned ETA members within 48 hours, and killed him when the deadline passed. His murder drew millions of Spaniards into the streets and is widely regarded as a turning point in public mobilisation against the group.

The project carries the support of Blanco's family, represented by his sister María del Mar Blanco (Variety). RTVE frames the film as part of its push into ambitious Spanish productions tackling major events from the country's recent history (Variety).

Production is scheduled to begin on October 5, 2026. Universal Pictures International Spain will handle theatrical distribution, and the studio's Spanish release schedule lists the film for August 6, 2027 (Variety; Universal Pictures Spain).

Netflix is also releasing a separate documentary on the same subject. 'Miguel Ángel Blanco: The 48 Hours That Changed Spain,' directed by Jon Sistiaga, arrived on the platform on July 10 and explores how the abduction turned fear into collective resistance and shaped Spain's fight against ETA (Netflix). The two projects are distinct: the documentary is already streaming, while 'Blanco' is a scripted feature still months from its first day of filming.

For Spanish-language cinema, the pairing of a public broadcaster, a global streamer and a major studio's local arm on a single title is an unusually broad coalition — the kind of distribution muscle that a €8 million budget needs to reach both theatres and living rooms.