Latest news with #AWidowsGame
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Why Does Maje From Netflix Hit ‘A Widow's Game' Look So Familiar?
Ivanna Baquero in "A Widow's Game." Ivana Baquero — the star of Netflix's No. 1 movie A Widow's Game — got her showbiz break in 2006 thanks a lead role in a Guillermo del Toro classic. What else has she starred in? Baquero stars as Maje in the A Widow's Game, which is currently the No. 1 film on the streamer's top 10 list of movies on the platform in the U.S. Netflix reported Tuesday that A Widow's Game also earned spots on Top 10 most-watched movie lists in 90 countries worldwide, amassing 15.4 million views since its debut on the streaming service on Friday, May 30. A Widow's Game is based on the real-life case known as "The Black Widow of Patraix.' The official summary for the film reads, 'August 2017. In a parking lot in Valencia appears the body of a man, stabbed seven times. Everything points to a crime of passion. Ivanna Baquero in "A Widow's Game." 'The Homicide Group of the city, with a veteran inspector at the head, starts an investigation against the clock that soon leads them to a suspect that no one expected: Maje, the young widow, sweet and serene, who had been married to the victim for less than a year.' Born June 11, 1994, in Barcelona, Spain, Baquero made her screen debut in a supporting role in the 2004 Spanish-UK supernatural thriller Romasanta, which was followed by roles in two more feature films and two TV movies. Baquero's breakthrough role, however, happened in 2006 when del Toro cast the young actor in the lead role in a film that went on to receive six Oscar nominations at the 2007 Academy Awards. Set in 1944, Pan's Labyrinth stars Ivana Baquero as Ofelia, a 10-year-old girl who moves with her ailing, pregnant mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to the Spanish countryside to live with Carmen's new husband, the brutal military dictator Captain Vidal (Sergi López). As Ofelia befriends a mythical creature known as the Faun (Doug Jones), she learns that she is a reincarnated princess who is saddled with completely three daunting tasks before she can once again assume the throne. Jones also plays the haunting creature the Pale Man in the film. Director Guillermo Del Toro and cast members Maribel Verdun, Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Sergi Lopez ... More and Alfonso Cuaron at the photocall of "El laberinto del fauno" during the 59th Cannes Film Festival. (Photo by Eddy LEMAISTRE/Corbis via Getty Images) Produced in Spain, Pan's Labyrinth was nominated for six Oscars in 2007, including Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Score for Javier Navarette and Best Original Screenplay for Guillermo del Toro. Pan's Labyrinth won Oscars in the three other categories it was nominated in, including Best Makeup, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Baquero was also honored for her role as Ofelia, winning the Best New Actress honor at the Goya Awards, which is Spain's equivalent to the Oscars. Baquero also won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA and was nominated for Best Young Actress at the 2007 Critics Choice Awards. Based on the best-selling The Sword of Shannara Trilogy of books by Terry Brooks, The Shannara Chronicles stars Ivana Baquero as Eretria opposites future Elvis and Dune: Part Two star Austin Butler. In the series, Eretria is a human who teams with the Elven Princess Amberle (Poppy Drayton) and a half-human/half-elf, Wil (Butler) to fend off demons from taking over the environs known as the Four Lands. Created by Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, The Shannara Chronicles ran for two seasons on MTV from 2016 to 2017. The series also starred James Remar (Dexter) and John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings/Indiana Jones series). Alejandra Onieva and Ivanna Baquero in "High Seas." A Netflix original Spanish series, High Seas stars Ivana Baquero as Eve Villanueva and Alejandra Onieva as her sister, Carolina, who while on a luxury cruise from Spain to Brazil in the 1940s investigate a series of mysterious murders aboard the ship. High Seas ran for three seasons on Netflix from 2019 to 2020. The first and second seasons each featured eight episodes, while the third season concluded the series with six episodes. Ivana Baquero stars opposite Evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell in the horror comedy Black Friday as Marnie, one of a small group of a large retail toy store who must fight off blood-thirsty shoppers infected with a parasites as the annual day-after-Thanksgiving sale gets underway. Black Friday also stars Devon Sawa (the first movie in the Final Destination franchise) and Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight). A Widow's Tale, starring Ivana Baquero, is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Insane True Story Behind ‘A Widow's Game'—Where Is The Real Maje Now?
LA VIUDA NEGRA. Ivana Baquero as Maje in LA VIUDA NEGRA. Netflix's latest crime thriller A Widow's Game has climbed to the No. 1 spot on the platform after its May 30 release. Viewers may be surprised to learn that the movie is inspired by one of the most shocking true crimes in Spain's history. Read on to learn more about the real-life case involving manipulation, infidelity and murder. From director Carlos Sedes (The Asunta Case), the film takes place in August 2017, when a dead body is discovered in a parking lot in Valencia, Spain, with several stab wounds. The victim is Arturo Ferrer Puig, a newlywed who had been married to a young woman named Maje for less than a year. Skilled homicide detective Eva is assigned to the case and soon realizes that Maje's story has holes – and all signs point to a crime of passion. 'Why does a person consider that it is better to commit a murder than to get divorced? This was the question that assailed me when I first read the news about Maje and Salvador's crime," executive producer Ramón Campos said in a statement to Netflix. 'Over the years we have been trying to unravel the answer and we think we have understood, but not understood, why Maje decided to manipulate Salvador to murder a person who was undoubtedly a good person. Because this film is not about the victim. It is about the murderers. Because sometimes the answer to our actions lies not in who we are, but where we come from,' he continued. "A Widow's Game" on Netflix Yes, Netflix's film A Widow's Game is based on a real-life true crime case from Valencia, Spain, known as La Viuda Negra de Patraix, which translates to 'The Black Widow of Patraix' in English. The character of Maje is based on María Jesús Moreno, while her late husband, Arturo, was inspired by 35-year-old Antonio Navarro. The man who carried out the crime was Maje's boyfriend, Salvador Rodrigo. LA VIUDA NEGRA. Ivana Baquero as Maje, Tristán Ulloa as Salva in LA VIUDA NEGRA. María Jesús Moreno was 27 years old at the time of her late husband's murder. According to the Spanish magazine La Razón, Maje was raised in a religious family and was one of five siblings. She met Antonio while she was studying nursing. He was attending the same university as her brother and often visited the house. They officially started dating in 2011, when she was 21 and he was 30. The couple moved into an apartment in Valencia, located in the Patraix neighborhood. She was employed at Casa de la Salud Hospital, while he worked at the El Rebollar Road Maintenance Center. The magazine reported that even before they tied the knot on Sept. 3, 2016, Maje was 'unfaithful' to her husband. Allegedly, her relationship with a physiotherapist got back to Antonio. He was about to call off the wedding, but she managed to convince him that he was the love of her life. LA VIUDA NEGRA. Tristán Ulloa as Salva, Ivana Baquero as Maje in LA VIUDA NEGRA. Salvador Rodrigo, who also worked at Maje's hospital, became involved in a romantic relationship with her. He was 20 years her senior, married, and the father of a daughter in her late twenties. La Razón reported that Salvador and Maje met in secret, exchanged letters, and that he attempted to leave his family to be with her. She allegedly continued seeing Salvador after her wedding to Antonio and was involved in several other extramarital affairs. LA VIUDA NEGRA. Tristán Ulloa as Salva in LA VIUDA NEGRA. According to La Razón, after a lunch date at Salvador's country home in Ribarroja, Maje told Salvador that her husband was psychologically abusing her. She reportedly told her boyfriend that she wanted to see her husband dead. They crafted a meticulous plan and determined that the best way to kill Antonio would be in the garage on a day that was convenient for both of their jobs. Salvador later confessed that before the killing, he started to become nervous. He allegedly expressed his hesitations to Maje, like not wanting to kill a man he didn't even know, but she allegedly pressured him to carry out the crime, the magazine reported. LA VIUDA NEGRA. Tristán Ulloa as Salva in LA VIUDA NEGRA. At 7:30 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 16, 2017, as Antonio was leaving for work, Salvador hid in the couple's building garage, according to TIME. He was armed with a 15 cm kitchen knife. When Antonio came down, Salvador attacked him and stabbed him to death, piercing his lungs and heart. He discarded the murder weapon in a cesspit on his property and disposed of his bloody clothes. He then met with Maje, who had not been at the apartment during the crime. That's when Maje began playing the role of the grieving widow—including reading a farewell letter at Antonio's funeral, per La Razón. LA VIUDA NEGRA. Pablo Molinero as Turrientes, Carmen Machi as Eva, Pepe Ocio as Bernardo in LA VIUDA ... More NEGRA. After police weren't convinced that robbery was the motive for the killing, investigators began to focus on Maje. They tapped her phone and discovered a message to a friend in which she admitted feeling liberated after Antonio's death and said she was now collecting his €1,100 pension, La Razón reported. Now under surveillance, Maje called Salvador for the first time since the murder on Nov. 8, 2017, and they had one of many incriminating conversations. On Jan. 2, they met in person to discuss what she would say if the police questioned her again. Ten days later, Maje and Salvador were arrested in January 2018. While Salvador tried to take full responsibility for the murder, he changed his story after learning that Maje was romantically seeing another inmate while in custody. 'In my previous statement, I said it was all my idea. But it was both of us,' Salvador said in a recording played end of A Widow's Game. Salvador's defense claimed that he was the victim of the obsessive love he felt for Maje. He also alleged that Maje portrayed herself as a victim of psychological and physical abuse. According to TIME, she also said that if her husband died, she wouldn't have to go through a divorce, which meant she could still receive a widow's pension and inheritance. Meanwhile, Maje denied any involvement in her husband's death. Despite the growing evidence against her – including phone calls, incriminating text messages, and witness testimonies – Maje said she believed Salvador was only fantasizing about what he was going to do to Antonio. In October 2020, a jury found both Maje and Salvador guilty. Maje was sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder with the aggravating circumstance of kinship. Salvador was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and both were ordered to pay €250,000 (approximately $280,000) in damages to Antonio's family. Maje is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence at Fontcalent Prison in Alicante, Spain. She became pregnant by another inmate, and in July 2023, gave birth in police custody. She is now residing in the prison's mother-child unit, where she can stay with her baby until the child turns three, per TIME. As for the identity of the baby's father – his name is David, a prisoner convicted of a 2008 murder. They reportedly met while she was serving time at Picassent Prison. A Widow's Game is now streaming on Netflix. Watch the official trailer below.
The Sun
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Who is Maria Jesus M.C aka black widow of Patraix and how long was she jailed for murdering Antonio Navarro Cerdan?
MARIA Jesus Moreno Canto is the inspiration behind Netflix's latest true crime movie after she was jailed for the murder of her husband. The new film follows the story of the case known as the black widow of Patraix, but what happened to Antonio Navarro Cerdan? Who is Maria Jesus Moreno Canto? Maria Jesus Moreno Canto and her partner Salvador R.L were both found guilty of the murder of Antonio on August 16, 2017. She was sentenced to 22 years behind bars for the stabbing in Valencia, Spain. The chilling story has been made into a film on Netflix, titled A Widow's Game. Maria, known as Maje, was 28 at the time of her husband's murder, and she worked as a nurse. She'd moved to Valencia from a small town to pursue a new and exciting life in the city. Maje was her husband's first and only girlfriend and was alleged to have frequently cheated on him. A month before their wedding, she was discovered to be having an affair with a physiotherapist, but Antonio forgave her. Salvador was a nursing assistant and worked with Maje. His wife, Inma also worked in the same medical centre. Ahead of Maje's guilty verdict, her brother said: "If she really is guilty, she will no longer be my sister." What did Maria Jesus Moreno Canto do? During her trial, she denied that she had anything to do with the planning or execution of her husband's murder, but admitted to covering up the crime. Watch first trailer for explosive Netflix show on Jason Corbett killing Jurors heard how Maje had asked Salvador to kill Antonio and had given him keys to her garage. Salvador admitted to the fatal stabbing with a butcher's knife, but said he only did it because he was scared of losing Maje. He said that Maje had lied to him and said she was being mistreated by her husband and felt he needed to "protect her". Both Maje and Salvador were found guilty after it was revealed that she'd given him precise information about her husband to ensure Antonio's death. 2 A total of 52 pieces of evidence, including recorded conversations, photos and WhatsApp messages were presented to the jury. Salvador was sentenced to 17 years in prison. How can I watch A Widow's Game? The film, based on the actual crime, is available on Netflix from May 30, 2025. It was produced by Bambu Producciones and written by the same writers as The Asunta Case. It's a Spanish film and stars Ivana Baquero as María and Carmen Machi as case inspector Eva and Tristan Ulloa as Salva.
