The Malaga-based production company that's behind the latest Hollywood blockbuster to hit Spain

When it comes to the usual summer decision of beach or mountain, Malaga-based production company Anima Stillking has it crystal-clear for this year: mountains win. That said, they are not actually going on holiday, quite the opposite, in fact. The film services company for international series and film shoots is the Spanish partner of the latest big saga to arrive in Spain, The Hunger Games. The sixth instalment, Sunrise on the Reaping, is preparing to film in the mountains of Asturias. A large part of the crew of this production company that is based in the Perchel district of Malaga city is already up north, specifically in Somiedo Natural Park, in whose idyllic valleys and peaks the plot of this apocalyptic franchise is set. With Glenn Close added to the cast, this franchise has already grossed over 3.3 billion US dollars to date.

With these numbers, it's no surprise that Lionsgate studios have taken just four months to begin filming this new instalment after author Suzanne Collins published back in March the latest novel in the saga, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Anima Stillking, in charge of setting up this complex film production with hundreds of technicians, dozens of trailers, caravans and construction of sets in an area of high natural value that must be used without compromising its protected status, has been involved in the pre-production work to this prequel.

Once again, director Francis Lawrence, who took charge of the saga from the second instalment, is in charge of the new adaptation, whose major addition to the cast is Hollywood star Glenn Close, as confirmed by online Hollywood magazine Deadline. Moreover, the casting has spared no resources with the signing of more big names, such as Kieran Culkin (Succession), Elle Fanning (Maleficent), Kelvin Harrison Jr (Elvis), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Jesse Plemons (Civil War), Billy Porter (Cinderella) and Lili Taylor (I Shot Andy Warhol). Lastly, Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) takes up the role of President Snow, the character played by Donald Sutherland in the first trilogy that was actually turned into four films because Mockingjay was split into two parts.

The new instalment, Sunrise on the Reaping, is a prequel, set 24 years before the original plot to focus on the character of Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss' (Jennifer Lawrence) mentor, played by Woody Harrelson. For this flashback, the chosen actor is Joseph Zada (of We Were Liars fame), who gives life to the young Haymitch as the young man chosen from District 12 to participate in the 50th Hunger Games.

Filming began this week in the heart of this natural park in Asturias, specifically in Lago del Valle, a location where tourist access has been restricted during film days and where sets have been built for the action scenes of this futuristic dystopia.

Anima Stillking is directing all the filming in Spain and is scheduled to continue until the end of August on the Cantabrian coast before resuming in autumn in Berlin and Brandenburg, where scenes for the new instalment will be completed. November 20 2026 is marked in red on the calendar, the date on which Sunrise on the Reaping is expected, as per the previous instalments, to break box office records with its world premiere.

Once filming on this Hollywood blockbuster in Asturias is a wrap, the Malaga-based film services company, headed by executive producers Silvia Aráez and María Cabello, will embark on a new project, the title of which is unknown. However, the company's staff will be relocating to Mallorca for a new shoot that will begin in September and on which the location scouts and pre-production team are already working. Not only this, but that same month will also see the premiere on AMC+ of one of the major titles filmed in Spain in 2024-25, the series Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. The third season is set entirely in Spain and was the first major production shot by Ánima Stillking, after the company was formed last year with a small team that had left Malaga-based company Fresco Film.

This spin-off of the most popular television series about the living dead brought together international stars Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride, with a large Spanish cast (including Eduardo Noriega, Óscar Jaenada and Greta Fernández), for a shoot that toured Spain from Galicia to Seville. Besides this, the Malaga-based production company will also release two other projects recently made in Malaga this year, the series The Girlfriend (Amazon Prime Video), a thriller directed by and starring American A-lister Robin Wright, and Mango (Netflix), a romantic comedy set in the farmlands of the Axarquia.