Secuoya Studios, coproducing along with Tiki Group, has been granted a permit in order to film in never-filmed-before locations on the island, which is one of UNESCO´s World Heritage sites.
Grupo Secuoya´s film and entertainment production division, Secuoya Studios, will produce in collaboration with Tiki Group (Chile-Mexico) the first fiction tv series filmed in Easter Island, one of the most extraordinary places in the world.
Traditionally known as Rapa Nui, it is the world´s most remote inhabited island, located 3.700 km off the Chilean coast and selected as a World Heritage site due to the Moai or human statues found along the island and as a way of preserving the primitive Polynesian culture. This will be the backdrop for “La Isla”, a thriller consisting of eight episodes, 50 minutes long each, which will showcase the spectacular location to the world. Secuoya Studios’ producer, David Martínez, and Tiki Group´s Miguel Asensio, have reached an agreement to produce this series which will focus on a missing Spanish tourist and the consequent lengths her best friend and Rapanui-ex police will have to go to in order to find her in this magical and mysterious place. The series will rely on an international cast made up of Spanish and Latin American actors and will be directed by Guillermo Acedo, a newcomer in Latin America who debuted in 2014 with “The Stranger”. He was awarded the Best Ibero-American Film prize in Sitges and the rights to the film were then bought by IFC for the US.
As far as the script goes, “La Isla” has an exceptional team behind it: Eligio Montero, Goya nominee and author of “Buñuel en el Laberinto de las Tortugas”, “Gran Hotel”, “Hierro” and “Gran Reserva”, as well as Chilean blockbuster director and thriller writer, Boris Quercia. He is known for his film feature, “Sexo con Amor” as well as his trilogy, starring detective Santiago Quiñones, which earned him the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.
Secuoya Studios is Grupo Secuoya´s film production and entertainment dedicated division. Grupo Secuoya is Spain´s leading company in terms of creation, production and distribution of audio visual and digital content, spearheading the transformation of the audio visual industry in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Mexico and United States, as well as being present all around the Spanish territory.
For his part, David Martínez, has been building his career in the audio visual sector for the past fifteen years, both as TVE and Mediaset Fiction director and producer at Morena TV, Voz Audiovisual and Filmanova. Regarding Miguel Asensio, he is one of Latin America´s most successful producers. Among his work, one can find “Sin Filtro”, the second most watched movie in Chilean film history (1,3 million viewers and remake versions in Spain, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, Panama, Paraguay, Korea and Peru); “Hazlo como un hombre”, most watched Mexican film in 2017 (4,3 million viewers), “No estoy loca”, Chile´s most watched film in 2018 and finally, Peruvian blockbuster “Recontraloca”, which rose in 2019 as the second most watched film.
Due to Rapa Nui Island being one of UNESCO´s World Heritage sites, filming permits are very restricted. In fact, up until now, there have only been two film productions set on this island in the South Pacific; “Rapa Nui”, produced by Kevin Costner in 1994 and scenes for “Ionana” teleseries in 1998. Since then, filming in the area was prohibited. However, now that Tiki Group has secured a filming permit that will allow access to even the most remote locations, “La Isla” will become the first fiction series to ever be filmed on the island.
