Javier Ruíz Caldera and Alberto de Toro undertake the final phase of filming 'Malnazidos'

Different locations in Catalonia are hosting the filming of the complex scenes of explosions, armed confrontations, escapes through the forest, zombie attacks and the meticulous transformation processes that are part of a project of the magnitude of 'Malnazidos'.

Miki Esparbé, Aura Garrido, Luis Callejo, Álvaro Cervantes, Jesús Carroza and María Botto lead the cast of Malnazidos, a film in which they give life to a group of combatants fleeing from rival sides who during the Civil War must ally themselves to face a common adversary. To achieve this, they will have to put aside their mutual hatred and thus avoid becoming zombies.

With this premise of pure action and adventure, he co-directs Javier Ruíz Caldera and Alberto de Toro this ensemble film. Different locations in Catalonia are hosting the filming of the complex scenes of explosions, armed confrontations, escapes through the forest, zombie attacks and the meticulous transformation processes that are part of a project the size of Malnazidos.

Recreating a credible war universe has been the challenge of Pepe Dominguez, art designer, who has proposed natural locations with precise interventions in spaces considered monuments (salt mines) and has opted for the construction of more than 200 meters of train tracks to manipulate and mobilize the two period armored trains, used by the Nazis in that historical period and built for the film. More than 20 vintage military vehicles, including ambulances, motorcycles, a sidecar, jeeps and armored war trucks, all of them perfectly functional and active to withstand the demanding use of the action film that its directors devised, make up the film's fleet.

Realistically showing the physical transformations has been decisive for the makeup team of Malnazidos, led by Montse Sanfeliú, head of Makeup, Jesús Martos as head of Hairdressing and Pablo Perona as head of Special Makeup. It has taken weeks of preparation and lighting tests with the director of photography, Kiko de la Rica, to create the characters and make the transformations believable, both in daylight sequences and in interior sequences.

More than 150 extras

The work with prostheses to search for volumes in the recreation of zombie cuts or bites, the research to produce and show blood in three different states - fresh, coagulated or dried - and the texturing of the skins of the protagonist group have been real challenges for this department, but, without a doubt, the three phases of transformation of more than 150 extras on some days have posed the greatest artistic difficulty.

Composing and providing each transformation phase with its own elements to make them perceptible to the viewer has been a real challenge: from the initial sweating of the bite phase, through the red eye and skin transparency in the conversion phase, to the use of special contact lenses in the experimental phase, for which an optician has been incorporated as another member of the technical makeup team in the conversion phase. Dirty textures or dead hair have been the great challenge for the hairdressing team of this film, along with haircuts appropriate to the year 1939.

The zombie coach Oscar Valsecchi has been in charge of giving identity and their most “bestial” essence to these infected, working with each of the extras, carefully chosen for their physiognomy and gestures. All coordinated with the head of Specialists and Effects, Lluíz Rivera, and the Action coordinator, Sergi Subirà.

More than 2,000 extras and more than 80 specialists, including zombies and soldiers, have had to dress the costume designer Cristina Rodríguez, combining set and period clothing with protections for the action scenes. The costume proposal for the protagonists has been their other great challenge, having to provide character and personality to their characters with a single change of clothing capable of conveying adventure, period, comedy and love in a scenario infected with zombies.

The core of the technical team includes Marta Sánchez de Miguel, Javier Ruiz Caldera's usual Production Director, with whom they are facing their fourth joint project after Super López, Three more weddings y Phantom Promotion.

The film is produced by Telecinco Cinemaa, Cactus Flower, Malnazidos AIE, La Terraza Films and Ikiru Films. It will be distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment Iberia.