Plural Entertainment

`Nominees’ Island´, the new comedy on Cuatro directed by Luis Guridi and produced by Plural Entertainment

20-07-2010

On a remote desert Island in Paradise...

Life on Earth has come to an end. The contestants on a reality show have been left to their fate on a remote desert island which originally formed the set to their reality TV show. The stupid rules to the game which in their day formed the basis of the competition are now rules for real life. This group of nominees are the last hope for the survival of humanity. Oblivious to all of this, the contestants keep playing the game... they nominate each other, they form alliances then they betray each other. Although they wouldn’t think twice about grouping together in the face of death.

What really bothers each of the contestants is each other ….there is something which they fear much more than death and that is being nominated. And even worse - eviction! When the programme was broadcast, their lives revolved around two main events each week: task time and live connection with the studio. But now neither of these exists, it’s as if time has stood still. For the inhabitants of the Island, time has lost all meaning.

A comedy with no lead actors

Nominees’ Island is a micro sitcom filmed on set, recreating the typical scenes from a desert island in the Pacific Ocean: the exotic beach, the rustic beach hut, the mysterious cave, the idyllic waterfall and the menacing forest which all form the backdrop to the characters’ adventures. This 20 strong cast combines the well-known, household names with the new up and coming faces in Spanish television. Nominees’ Island presents a series of comic sketches using buffoonery, absurdity, the grotesque and the just plain funny. The show parodies well-known series as a means to get closer to the interaction between the characters. The whole mechanism of voting, evictions and meaningless rules highlight the absurdities of human behaviour.

Nominees’ Island is a mock reality. The cameras film everything that happens and the inhabitants are more than aware of their presence. Even more so when they go into the Confession Room and can play up to the audience without fear of interruption. Aside from these “ready for camera moments”, we get to see the contestants’ true colours when they think they are off camera.

The World of Tiki

The decorative style of Tiki has become iconic in art, culture and music not mention beer-mats, placemats, doormats and as many other areas as you would care to mention.

“Tiki” is a figure from Polynesian mythology which is given to the names of the totems carrying its image. Tiki first appeared in the West in 1930s America as a yearning for the South Pacific exotic was reflected in “Hawaiian shirts”, a love for exotic cocktails and decorative patterns taken from the Polynesian totem poles. While the 1950s saw the golden age of Tiki, the 1990s saw a revival of huge proportions in the U.S.A. as Tiki graphics entered numerous publications and went main-stream through tattoos, the pop aesthetic and contemporary illustration. It is this Tiki aesthetic which is the underlying visual reference in Nominees’ Island.

Concept and Director’s Notes

The concept for the series has been devised by Luis Guridi. Guridi has worked in television, advertising, new media and film. Forming part of the production group La Cuadrilla, Luis directed various short films between 1983 and 1990. In 1994 he directed his award winning opera prima, the feature film Justino, un asesino de la tercera edad, (Justino, a senior citizen and an assassin) for which he won the Goya for best Opera Prima. Guridi has also directed a host of advertising campaigns which are well-known throughout Spain including his work with chef Karlos Arguiñano, El Corte Inglés and ONCE lottery for the blind. His series of comic satirical sketches for the Internet called the “güebones”, which have paved the way to viral marketing in the Spanish language. For the past five years, Luis has directed the Spanish version of the four season, prime time comedy series Camera Café.

The Scripts

As is the case of Camera Café, the scripts are key to the series’ success. The writing team comprises a group of six writers led by Álex Mendíbil and Juan Carlos Blázquez, both of whom have ample television experience, both having worked with Guridi on Camera Café alongside other projects.

The Music

Paco Ortega heads production for the opening song composed especially for the series by a new group call Cesar&Parker and fronted by César Fernandez, former lead singer of The Melocotons whose songs are also included in the series. Paco Ortega is musician, producer and composer with his songs having been performed by great Spanish artists such as Niña Pastori, Pata Negra and Joaquín Sabina… Paco has written the soundtracks to Films such as Sobreviviré (I will Survive) (1999), Vida y color (Life in Color) (2005), the Argentinian film Cleopatra (2004) and Atraco a las tres y media (2002), which was Goya-nominated for Best Original Song.. “My iLand”, the theme tune which combines a Kinks-like melody with tones of Hawaiian-style Elvis Presley films, is now for sale on i-tunes and other on-line music sites. It is also available through streaming (Spotify, Soundcloud, etc...).

The Characters

Aníbal Sierra "Watch out for those ants, they can be real bastards!"

He professes to be a lion hunter and have a love for the great outdoors but Aníbal Sierra is a cheeky so-and-so, known best for presenting a wildlife section on prime time TV. This wannabe Crocodile Dundee insists he gets on better with animals than with humans, but the truth is that there isn’t one animal left on the island that hasn’t thought about eating him whole. Aníbal is really only interested in animals if it means getting some more air time and let’s say his approach is not what you would call delicate. This could well be why he gets nothing more than grief from the local fauna.

Verónica Alpino “Have you thought about shaving sweetheart?”

Sex symbol of her generation and heiress to the Alpina family fortune (propelling pencils). Veronica now in her 30s, finds that she gets more mum roles these days than the hot babe ones she is used to. She has even been offered to play young granny which has given her good reason to get a nip and tuck by the best plastic surgeons in the country. But surgery is not the answer to everything as she discovered when she was being pulled out of the helicopter and one of her breast exploded, not to mention Botox inflammation on her bottom lip and losing the blue contact lens for her left eye. Despite these unfortunate incidents, Veronica has managed to hold onto her pride, dignity and self-esteem.

Sara Leal “You don’t have to do anything. They just drop off by themselves”

The baby of the group, Sara is just past adolescence and has become the Kasparov of reality shows. She barely knows what real life is like but she has the strategy down to a fine art – not just for this show but for all the realities that have played out to date. With great expertise, she leaves evidence on camera about anyone and everyone, just by asking them a question. In the Confession Room, she explains her diverse strategies -: keep a low profile, draw attention to yourself, be rude or even be the first girl to get pregnant on a reality show. Despite all her attempts to stand out from the crowd, you always end up thinking of her as the girl with the sad face.

Carrasco “Whenever I think, I get hungry. And when I get hungry …”

Carrasco, that is Sergeant Carrasco, has spent so much time taking orders from others that he can’t live without them. He obeys every command and prides himself on it. Even his arrival on the island was down to following a Colonel’s orders. He used to clean the Colonel’s boots and serve him coffee with brandy. He then wrote a long letter to his wife who was alone on mainland telling her everything he had done for the Colonel …. As woman spurned, she got onto the tenth series of Big Brother and hit it off with one of the male contestants at peak viewing time in front of the Spanish nation. What’s more, the guy was Italian. Carrasco’s fellow contestants won’t let him forget that part. An Italian! Aren’t there men enough in Spain?

Inmaculada “Macu” Abad “Blimey, this stone could save my life”

Inmaculada Abad, Known as “Macu” started gymnastics at the age of five. She would go from school to the gym and from the gym to bed - day in, day out. She was trained to win the Seol Olympics but her life lost all meaning when she came second. So she filled it with new challenges. Unfortunately, the last challenge she took – touring the Amazon with her legs in shackles, ended less than happily. It took her ten years to find her way back. During this time, she learnt every survival technique possible. Now she is able to survive the most extreme of circumstances by feeding from monkey faeces and distilling water from her own urine.

Fermín Laborda “Spain has spoken… I am the chosen one.”

Having been chosen as leader in the last gala, there is no-one that can make Fermín forget it. At long last he feels supported by the audience (it was a slim defeat) and it has gone to his head. It’s probably something to do with the fact that he has never been recognised for anything in the past. As the inventor of Wordsearch, Fermín was sworn to anonymity in his contract. And now, proud of his recently gained popularity, he wants to be main-stage and at the centre of action at all times. After all, his “audience” demands it. Fermín is immune from nomination so the others on the island feel as though they have to follow him. He also has a sensitive complexion, and can’t bear to be in direct sunlight.

Valentín Soriano

Valentín is chiropodist to the rich and famous. But rather than being confidante to the jet-set, he is regarded more like a slave. The celebrities go to him because he is the best. He should be – he is horribly meticulous in his work, not to mention shamelessly fastidious. He won’t use anything that has been used by others and even brought his own cutlery to the island. He was a hit on “Celebrity Fame Academy” until they confiscated his title when they found out that he wasn’t really a man. In fact he isn’t really a woman either. And he is as confused about it as anyone. He’s not sure if he was operated from man to woman and back again or from woman to man…

Pepa Moreno “I am the real people’s Princess. Did I say Princess? I meant Queen!”

The veteran member on the Island is a former folk singer who has a penchant for the bottle. Her continual outbursts on stage forced her to abandon the world of the Spanish copla. She has now decided to reinvent herself into the “grandma of rock” propelling herself into an arena where she is met with fervent applause for her far from elegant manners and her raucous voice. Foul-mouthed, vulgar and uncouth, Pepa flies off the handle in a blink of an eye. Deep down she has a big heart.

Esteban Sarmiento “I hate to ask for favours, but as I am in a wheelchair …”

Not for one moment can the world forget that Esteban is disabled. He sees himself as the winner, and so do the rest of them –“let’s face it, who do you vote our first? A loser or a paralytic?”– And that is just why they hate him. His whole strategy is about winning the audience sympathy vote. So the others treat him well on-camera and leave him to his own devices as soon as they are out of vision.

Kitín Alonso “The producers told me that I would only have to be here for one month. Just enough time to get clean.”

While he has had relationships with the world’s most desired women, not one of them has been able to get him to tie the knot. Kitín has one passion only to party, and the longer the better. But at his age, it is now time to make some life changes so he is going to give up the old life of drugs, parties, affairs, all of them typical occurrences in one night. And now he’s going give it all up just like that. Whether he succeeds or not, it doesn’t matter, the audience love him for his Mediterranean alegría. He gets on with everyone on the island, and always manages to get what he wants through his cheekiness and happy-go-lucky ways. Men admire him, women adore him. How the hell does he do it?

Adela Comas “Which sounds better?: “erect like a Greek column” or “upright like a flashing?lighthouse”?”

Adela Comas… Or Barbara Westminster. Or Catherine Bouquet. Or Scarlett O’Graham. or so many other pseudonyms that appear on the covers of Adela’s series of books entitled “The Novel of Passion”. Her latest success and bestseller “Alone on the Island” was the reason why she was called to take part in the contest in the first place. But she has come to the Island to find adventure for the first time in her life. She has brought with her a typewriter and a pile of sheets which she hides jealously from the others. She is capable of doing anything as long as it stays on the written page, but in real life she can’t even say boo to a goose.

Eva Lys “I’m so close to my rainbow, I can almost touch it”

If the world were to begin again on the Island, Eva would be Eve. She dreams of being a model but she doesn’t know how to walk the catwalk, she dreams of being a singer but she can’t sing, she dreams of being an actress, but…and so it goes on. Her taste speaks volumes about her… Favourite colour: pink. Favourite fruit: strawberries. Religion: the Disney Channel. She has few obsessions, well just two actually - her looks and her aversion to lack of hygiene. As she said when she entered Miss Spain: “If I could put an end to any two things in the world, they would be poverty and sweat”.

Dannielle “Danni” Morreau “Pass me the towel will you love”

Having managed to tie two cherries around a prominent sexual organ with her tongue, in a scene from “The Harvester of Deep Gorge Fountain” this adult film actress got the highest rating ever for downloads in internet history. Even the video of her opening the festivities at her village fiestas got more than three million downloads. For her, sex is nothing more than a line of work. She has no qualms in using men and this infuriates the other women. They can’t stand her. The problem is that men do nothing for Dannielle whatsoever. “Where can I find a friendly, little monkey who wants to play”, she sighs dreamily.

Röhn Johensson "Öhj fagsdstek luva"

If we were to go back to the world’s creation on this island, there is no doubt that Röhn would be Adam. Blond hair, blue eyes, athletic.... Röhn is the Norwegian winner of Nominees’ Island in Norway. On the Island, he is the object of fun for everyone. The guys use him like a cart-horse and the girls use him as a sex object. Röhn doesn’t complain, or that’s what they think, because trying to communicate with him is like trying to talk to someone from another galaxy. He may speak Dutch, Norwegian, Russian and even Euskeda from the Basque country, but here is one polyglot who can’t make himself understood to the rest.

Cuqui Ortiz de Zubiri “I want you all to know that here, I am no different to the rest of you”

She stood for mayoress (mainly because half the town’s buildings belong to her family) but ended up deserting her party for the opposition with her Gucci bags stuffed with cash. To avoid scandal, she decided to desert back to her original party. Now even she doesn’t know which side she is on not to mention the judges. While she works that out, she has paid her way with big sums of money to go from TV studio to TV studio to explain herself and the fact that she will be giving her money to charity. With ideals which are purely reactionary, Cuqui has a kind word to say to even the most unfortunate person. But once in the Confession Room, she screams for Spain to rescue her from this filthy dump where she is surrounded by a group of “low-lives”.

Juanjo (just Juanjo) “We should try to trust people just a Little bit more”

For Juanjo, the Island provides the perfect opportunity to show the world that self-rule works. He firmly believes that the group can function without leadership so he doesn’t obey any of the rules Juanjo needs just two things to make his day: his dog and his whistle. That’s why he hates Esteban, who, unable to take the sound of that bloody whistle any longer, threw it over the fence and into the jungle. Thinking this was some fun kind of game, the dog dashed off to look for it and neither the whistle nor the dogs have been seen since. There are nights when you can hear the piping of the whistle and the barking of the dog, but no-one has ever been able to find them – Just as well –say the others.

The rest …

…aside from this merry band of contestants, there are a handful of other actors that turn up to surprise us. There are the evicted ones, the contestants from past series, and then of course the typical soviet astronauts who lose altitude and fall to the sea after spending seven years in space… so yes there will be room for some more special guests.