Penelope Cruz to star in film by Julio Medem

Penelope Cruz is set to play Magda, the leading character of “ma ma,” a movie written and directed by Julio Medem with two other Spaniards in the cast, Luis Tosar and Asier Etxeandia, and with the music of threetime Oscar nominee Alberto Iglesias.

Currently in preproduction, the film will be shot next spring entirely in Spain and in Spanish, and will be produced by Cruz and Medem in collaboration with Morena Films, the Dyp communications company told Efe.

This will be the first time that Medem, director of “Lucia y el Sexo,” and Cruz, star of “Volver,” work together.

“ma ma” (no capital letters) tells the story of Magda, a woman who “faced with tragedy, reacts by living the life she always had within her, from the imaginable to the unimaginable. She and those in her most intimate surroundings live unexpected scenes of humor and gentle happiness,” Dyp says.

This will be the Spanish director’s first feature film since his prizewinning “Habitacion en Roma” in 2010 starring Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenko. Meanwhile he continues his project of adapting his novel “Aspasia, Amante de Atenas” to television.

Cruz, who recently had her second child, a girl, had a boxoffice hit last Christmas in the cast of “The Counselor,” the latest film by Ridley Scott, in which she shared billing with Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz and her husband, Javier Bardem.