Spanish Horror Maestro and ‘[REC]’ Co-Creator Paco Plaza Signs Development, Production Deal with Zeta Studios (EXCLUSIVE)

Still expanding “Elite” producer Zeta Studios has reached an agreement with auteur filmmaker Paco Plaza to develop and produce projects together. The agreement is non-exclusive regarding Plaza’s directorial work.

According to Zeta, the first project developed with Plaza will launch production in 2025.

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A Valencia native who studied at Madrid’s ECAM, Plaza’s debut feature, “El Segundo nombre” (2002), won the European Grand Prix for a Fantasy Film at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival. He is best known for co-creating the “[REC]” franchise, co-directed with Jaume Balagueró. The first film in the trilogy is a modern Spanish classic that achieved outstanding international success and was later remade in English as “Quarantine.”

Other standout titles from the filmmaker’s resume include Spanish Academy Goya nominee “Veronica” (2017),a big hit on Netflix, Luis Tosar-starrer “An Eye for an Eye” (2019), San Sebastian player “La Abuela” (2022) and Netflix’s “Hermana Muerte” (2023).

With his latest feature, “Mugaritz. No Bread, No Dessert,” Plaza worked against type, trading in the terror of his previous works to shoot a behind-the-scenes doc about fine dining at one of the world’s highest-rated restaurants. The film opened this year’s Culinary Zinema section at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

In a release, Plaza explained: “After a 21 career, for me, it is a pleasure and a great opportunity to collaborate with Zeta Studios as a creative producer, putting my experience at the service of other directors, hoping to be able to help them develop and carry out their projects. We especially, although not exclusively, want to focus on promoting fantasy and horror genre projects, although what we are really looking for are stimulating projects.”

Zeta Studios is one of Spain’s leading indie production outfits and has garnered tremendous acclaim for its films and series, including Netflix’s hugely popular YA series “Élite,” Spanish box office hit “Superlópez,” and award-winning fare such as Ramón Salazar’s “La enfermedad del domingo” and Alberto Rodríguez’s “El Hombre de las mil caras.” Zeta’s new series with Movistar Plus+ “La vida breve” was recently selected to open the 2024 South International Series Festival in Cadiz, Spain’s premiere TV festival.

Zeta CEO Antonio Asensio said of the company’s agreement with Plaza: “This alliance is a great opportunity to be able to work together and take advantage of Paco’s incredible creativity and talent to develop and produce quality content. With the means and structure of a studio like ours put at the service of enormous talent like Paco Plaza, we will be able to amplify and achieve greater production quotas together.”

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