Paramount Pictures has inked a deal for worldwide distribution rights to two Spanish animated features – Capture the Flag and the sequel to 2012 hit Tad, the Lost Explorer.
Enrique Gato, who directed the first Tad film, will helm both the projects, which are to be co-produced by Mediaset Espana’s Telecinco Cinema, Telefonica Studios and Los Rockets AIE, the companies said in a press release.
“This tie-up is an historic landmark in Spanish cinema as it will be the first time that a Hollywood studio agreed to distribute worldwide two Spanish films,” the companies said.
Capture the Flag, set to be released in summer 2015, is inspired by the space race of the 1960s. It is the story of an evil billionaire who tries to secure the energy source of the future, helium 3, by erasing all evidence of the 1969 moon landing and especially the American flag planted by the astronauts of Apollo XI.
Working to spoil his evil designs is a young surfer named Mike, along with his two friends, a lizard and Mike’s grandfather, a former astronaut.
The companies said the announcement of the distribution deal was timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the first moon landing.
The second film, to be titled Tad Jones: The Return of the Hero and opening sometime in 2016, will continue the adventures of the Spanish builder who in the first installment transformed into an Indiana Jones-kind of archaeologist/adventurer in South America.
“Paramount has a long history of launching animated films worldwide and is looking forward to this new partnership opportunity,” Paramount’s chief of international distribution Antony Marcoly said.
Mediaset Espana has been behind such Spanish international box-office successes as Pan’s Labyrinth, The Impossible and The Orphanage.