Karla Sofía Gascón, Oscar-nominated for “Emila Perez,” and Itziar Ituño of “Money Heist” have committed to star in the good vs. evil Spanish TV show “When Devils Rule” (“Los demones mandan”), to be pitched at Tallinn’s TV Beats Co-Financing Market running Nov. 16-17.
The six-parter, currently in development, will reunite Ituño with helmer Rodrigo Susarte (“Hidden Island,” “Gen Mishina”) and production banner Atlantika Films, behind the anticipated Movistar Plus Original “Patagonia,” set to premiere in January 2027.
Created and produced by Atlantika founder Nano Arrieta — long-time collaborator of Oscar-winner Fernando Trueba — and Claudia Ruíz, it’s a contemporary thriller spiced with supernatural, fantasy, folklore and satire, in which “demons hide in plain sight, manipulating the powerful and pulling the strings of a world sliding into chaos,” states the logline.
Arrieta — who’s currently drafting the pilot script with Basque screenwriter Ibai Ariztegi — said the storyline is loosely based on prominent Argentine author Manuel Mujica Lainez’s novel “The Journey of the Seven Demons.”
“In the book, the demons are basically settled in Hell because they have already done their job, and the Devil sends them back out into the world to collect souls. But looking at the world we live in today, our feeling was: the demons are already here. You only have to look at genocide, the rise of fascism, political extremism and everything that is happening around us,” he told Variety.
Rather than doing a literal adaptation, the creators kept the book’s DNA and tweaked the ideas of evil, temptation and power with a contemporary twist.
However, as Arrieta stressed, the series is fundamentally built around four heroines. “Those women come from a very ordinary, working-class environment, but whose jobs actually represent some of the pillars that keep society functioning. One works in care, another in education, another in healthcare and another in journalism,” Arrieta explained.
Gascón will play Manuela, a teacher in an elite school, and Ituño the the role of Evita, the personal secretary to the prime minister of the series’ fictional country.
Connected through a community center, the women are helping neighbors and migrants, stepping in where institutions fail. They will try to unmask and chase away the demons in human disguise, embedded within society.
Commenting on the casting of Gascón, Arrieta said: “I have known Karla for some time, and she has always been extremely generous with us. We had been looking for the right project to work on together because it needed to be something ambitious, something with real quality and something that genuinely made sense for her. And it feels like this may be that project.”
About Ituño, with whom he just collaborated on the forthcoming eco-thriller “Patagonia,” Arrieta said, “Working with her is genuinely a joy. She is incredibly intelligent, generous and instinctive as an actress, and on a personal level she has also become a very good friend.”
“Having both of them together is obviously incredibly exciting because they are two very powerful actresses, but they also have very strong personalities and voices beyond the screen, which feels completely aligned with what the series wants to talk about,” he argued.
The remaining key cast is in negotiation.
Financially, Arrieta said around 60% of the Spanish production costs would be covered by Spain’s Basque region tax incentive. He is now actively looking for “platforms, broadcasters, financiers, creative or production partners who want to come on board at the development stage and help us build the strongest, highest quality version of the series possible.”
At Tallinn’s TV Beats, the series strand of the Black Nights Film Festival’s Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event sidebar, “When Devils Rule” will vie for the €50,000) ($56,000) Council of Europe Series Co-Production Development Award.
Atlantika Films’ “Patagonia” is repped at Mipcom by ZDF Studios.