Amazon MGM Studios Inks Exclusive Overall Deal With Gaz Alazraki’s Maquina Vega

Rosy Cordero
·3-min read

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios has signed an exclusive overall deal with Gary “Gaz” Alazraki’s Maquina Vega. Under the deal, Alazraki is set to produce, write and direct series for Amazon MGM Studios.

Alazraki is a Mexican director known for directing the movies Father of The Bride (2022; writer and director of Mexico’s record-breaking comedy Nosotros Los Nobles (2013); and co-creator, executive producer and director of Club De Cuervos (2015), Netflix’s first Spanish original series. He heads Maquina Vega and is a board member of Oceana.

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Alazraki began his career by directing commercials and the short films: Volver (2005) starring Jaime Camil, Martha Higareda, Tony Dalton and La Hora Cero (2008) produced by Guillermo Arriaga.

In 2011, he began production on Nosotros Los Nobles starring Gonzalo Vega, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Karla Souza and Juan Pablo Gil which he directed/wrote/produced. The film was released by Warner Bros. in 2013 and it became the highest-grossing Mexican movie of all time. The film stayed in the Box Office Top 10 for 17 weeks -second place to Titanic (20 weeks). With 7.2 million viewers and 340 million pesos in box office sales, it doubled the record from the previous highest-grossing Mexican film in history. It won Best Movie at the CANACINE Awards and garnered Méndez the nomination for Best Actor at The Mexican Academy Awards as well as a nomination for Best Screenplay.

In 2014, Alazraki teamed up with Méndez again on Netflix’s Club De Cuervos, a series based on a fictional soccer team called Los Cuervos de Nuevo Toledo which ran for four seasons. In 2017, Netflix touted the series as its most binge-watched show in Mexico. A mini-series followed called The Ballad of Hugo Sánchez, directed and executive produced by his brother and partner Mark Alazraki.

He directed Father of the Bride for Plan B and Warner Bros. in 2019 with Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan starring as a couple on the brink of divorce. The reimagination follows Billy Herrera (Garcia), a Cuban American man in Miami who wants to preserve his traditions as his elder daughter Sofia (Adria Arjona) is about to marry Adan Castillo (Diego Boneta), her Mexican fiancé.

Maquina Vega is an international studio with offices in Los Angeles and Mexico City, providing a pipeline between the English and Spanish-speaking worlds. The company was founded last year when Alazraki Entertainment and Alisa Tager joined forces.

Tager serves as President and Co-founder overseeing operations for both offices; Alazraki as Lead Creative, Director and Co-founder; Moises Chiver as Head of Production and finance and co-founder; Mark Alazraki as Lead Creative (Mexico), Director and Co-founder; Vicente García Cors as Head of Distribution and Finance; Adrian Ituarte as VP of Production; Valeria de León as Director of Development.

The studio has first-look deals with Animal Politico, an online investigative newspaper in Mexico, and Algarabia, a general interest magazine of short-form stories. They have a development deal with Editorial Planeta, a Spanish-language publisher. The current slate includes Club Perfecto, currently in post at ViX with Ricardo Castro serving as writer/director and Jonathan Davis as producer; Bienvenidos a La Familia, which is currently in production with Netflix, Mark Alazraki; Billy Meier, a documentary in production with Miguel Leon directing; Los Niños Del Amazona, in development with Candle Media’s Exile, based on the novel by Daniel Coronel; and Bodas, in development at ViX from creator, Erik Zuckerman.

Alazraki is repped by WME, Grandview and Gang Tyre.

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