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Barcelona-based production company Mr. Miyagi has teamed with Uruguay’s Mother Superior and Argentina’s Sombracine to co-produce queer romantic comedy Astronaut, the feature directorial debut of producer-director David Matamoros.

Lead-produced by Mr. Miyagi’s Matamoros and Angeles Hernandez, Astronaut follows David, an inveterate romantic who has a travel agency specialising in trips linked to romantic comedies. His 15-year romance with Quique has stagnated. So, David decides to give Quique a trip down Route 66 with a special stop in Las Vegas.

Shooting is scheduled to begin on August 7 in Buenos Aires and to continue in Barcelona and Las Vegas. Casting will include Raul Tejon (Locked Up), Raul Fernandez de Pablo (La Unidad) and Alejandro Nones (Who Killed Sara? Matamoros, formerly of Zentropa Spain (an affiliate of Lars von Trier’s European network of production companies), has recently teamed up with Basque Films to co-produce Netflix’s horror fable hit

The Platform, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. This film won the best film at the 52nd Sitges’ International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. Matamoros recently teamed with Basque Films to co-produce Netflix’ horror fable hit The Platform

, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, winner of the best film at the 52nd Sitges’ International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia.Other productions in which Mr. Miyagi has been involved are Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Evolution, a 2015 San Sebastian Festival Special Jury Prize winner, which sold strongly for Wild Bunch, the soon to be released The Lighthouse directed by Angeles Hernandez, and Jose Skaf’s Vulcania

.Mr. Miyagi, Sombracine, and Mother Superior have worked together on previous projects. Alberto Masliah, Sombracine’s director of production, told Screen that this is a genuine partnership between all three production houses. Sombracine previously partnered with Mr. Miyagi to co-produce Marco Berger’s The Astronaut Lovers

.According to Matamoros, Mr. Miyagi aims to make projects that are a balance between an auteur’s aspirations and industry interests. “Astronaut is a new approach to The Wizard of Oz

; in that journey, it makes sense that nowadays Dorothy would run into characters from all over the world,” he said.Based in Montevideo, Mother Superior is a genre-focused company run by Ignacio Garcia Cucovich and Gustavo Hernandez, the director of horror hit The Silent House and zombie thriller Virus:32. “Astronaut is a big step in order to strengthen our ties with our main co-producing countries. It’s important, however, to highlight Uruguay’s institutional goal of internationalising its audiovisual sector. Co-productions such as Astronaut

• are the ideal projects for showing and exporting talent,” Cucovich stated.