‘German Doctor’s’ Natalia Oreiro, ‘El Marginal’s’ Juan Minujin Set for ‘Bypass, Almost Dead’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Natalia Oreiro (“The German Doctor”) and Juan Minujín (“The Two Popes,” “El Marginal”) are set to star in “Bypass: Almost Dead” (“Bypass: Casi Muerta”).

Adapting the original Basque film “Bypass,” the first feature of Aitor Mazo and Patxo Tellería which scored 15 nominations at the 2013 Spanish Academy Goya Awards, “Bypass: Almost Dead” is produced by Argentina’s Cinema 7 Films and Non Stop and will be directed by Fernán Mirás. The director’s debut feature, “El Peso de la Ley” (“The Heavy Hand of the Law”), snagged six nominations  at Argentina’s 2017 Premios Sur.

A screwball romantic comedy, the original “Bypass” turns on the feckless Aitor, who visits a dying woman friend María who, he learns, has always carried a candle for him. To grant her an almost last wish, he falsely confesses he has always loved her, which sparks her miraculous recovery, leaving Aitor to juggle a new love life and a relationship with a girl-friend who is now pregnant with their first child.

Cinema 7 Films, whose latest title, doc feature “A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story,” was made available late March on Netflix, has also inked with Voltage Pictures for the L.A. company to handle international sales on the English-language action-thriller “Compound 9.”

A remake of “The Ninth Configuration,” which was written and directed by William Peter Blatty whose writing credits include “The Exorcist,” “Compound 9” is directed by Rodrigo H. Vila. Taylor Zakhar and Denzel Whitaker are attached to star.

Featured via a teaser at a MipCancun showcase of Argentine projects, “Dead Trees” (“Los Arboles Muertos”), a noir-ish, fantasy laced horror-thriller set in deep Patagonia, has secured a co-production deal with Los Andes Cine, Chile. The project will be helmed by by Ana Piterbag, who directed Viggo Mortensen in “We All Have a Plan”).

Dutch co-production “Van Gogh’s Widow,”a second project for director Mirás, is also scheduled to shoot in 2021.

“In the last, so strange months, we’ve focused on deepening the development of certain projects and the acquisition of new IPs,” said Cinema 7 Films producer Guillermo Rossi.

“We moved some projects, originally slated for this year, into 2021, when we hope there’ll be somewhat more visibility, above all as to theatrical openings on projects which require this window in their business model,” he added.