Elena Anaya (Credit: Miami International Film Festival)
The action series Professionals, co-starring Elena Anaya, has found a home at The CW. The network acquired the show’s U.S. distribution rights. The series, also starring Tom Welling of Parkland and Brendan Fraser of The Mummy, was produced by Most Media. A premiere date is yet to be announced.
Palencia, Spain-born Anaya plays a visionary doctor who is engaged to a billionaire futurist. When the couple’s advanced medical satellite explodes on deployment, they hire a hardened former counterintelligence officer to investigate possible sabotage. The fate of the world is also in the balance as a potential global catastrophe threatens humanity. Soon it becomes clear that the rocket disaster is the work of corporate rivals, corrupt government officials and a shadowy crime syndicate.
Anaya is also an executive producer of the series as are fellow co-stars Welling and Fraser.
A co-production of Ireland and South Africa, Professionals was shot in locations in both countries. The ensemble cast also features Saïd Taghmaoui (John Wick 3), Ken Duken (Inglourious Basterds), Lisa Loven Kongsli (Force Majeure), August Wittgenstein (The Crown), Stevel Marc (The Mauritanian), Tanya Van Graan (Raised by Wolves) and Nic Rasenti (Outlander).
Anaya is an award-winning actress best known for her leading role in La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In), an acclaimed film by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar that won two awards at Cannes. The film also earned Anaya the Goya Award, Spain’s top film prize that is considered that nation’s equivalent of the Oscar. Anaya’s other notable credits include Room in Rome and Todos Están Muertos, for which she received additional Goya noms.
Along with her career in Spain, Anaya has made inroads in Hollywood with appearances in popular films. She was as Aleera, one of Dracula’s brides in the 2004 horror action film Van Helsing and Doctor Poison in the superhero blockbuster Wonder Woman.
Most recently, the Spanish actress appeared in Woody Allen’s 2020 comedy Rifkin’s Festival. Other Hollywood credits include the Cinemax series Jett and the BBC miniseries MotherFatherSon.
Professionals is a production of Most Media, Subotica, Spier Films and Roadside Attractions in association with Jeff Most Productions, Leonine Studios, Nent Group and The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The series was created by Jeff Most (The Crow, The Specialist) and Michael Colleary (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) both of whom serve as co-showrunners and executive producers. Other exec producers include Tristan Orpen Lynch, Michael Auret, Howard Cohen, Eric d’Arbeloff, Jennifer Berman, Maijang Mpherwane, Dipak Chiba, William Smith, Herbert Kloiber, Thomas Augsberger, Cosima von Spreti, Fredrik Ljungberg, Maxim Korostyshevsky, Daniel Wagner and Bharat Nalluri.
The producers are Katy Most, Lwazi Manzi and Aoife O’Sullivan. The series is distributed by Rainmaker Content for Leonine Studios.
Featured Photo: Professionals (Credit: CW)
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