The Community of Madrid transforms the Metro network into a large film set for the filming of some twenty film and television productions
In 2024, films such as La Deuda by Daniel Guzmán and Zeta, by Dani de la Torre and Josu Incháustegui, chose the Madrid underground as their setting. The company's headquarters on Avenida de Asturias and the Paco de Lucía station were the most popular locations. In the advertising and commercial field, adverts have been filmed for international brands such as Kellogg's, Volkswagen, Hoff and Mahou.
The Community of Madrid has converted the Metro network facilities into a large film set for the filming of 26 film and television productions throughout 2024, consolidating the underground network as a stage for the production of films, TV shows and ads. In this sense, the company's headquarters, on Avenida de Asturias, and the Paco de Lucía station (Line 9) have been the locations that have been most in demand by the audiovisual industry.
Some of the most outstanding projects undertaken last year include the film La Deuda by Daniel Guzmán, which used the Chamartín stop for some of its sequences, and Zeta, an action thriller and spy thriller by Dani de la Torre and Josu Incháustegui, filmed in the main building of the public company.
Likewise, the creators Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, Los Javis, filmed some scenes of the miniseries La Mariliendre in Chueca, while the production El Legado, starring José Coronado and Belén Cuesta, included several locations of the underground network in its filming.
The new season of Física o Química, and the plot of Daniel Calparsoro's series Salvador, with the participation of Luis Tosar, also have sequences filmed in different stations. And, in the advertising and commercial field, Metro de Madrid has filmed ads for international brands such as Kellogg's, Volkswagen, Hoff and Mahou, as well as appearing in several television programmes such as Cuarto Milenio and El Piano.
These 26 shootings have involved 44 days and 225 hours of work in which more than 1,100 industry professionals have participated, including actors, production staff, extras and technical equipment. For the regional government, the choice of the metro as a filming location is an important element of tourism promotion for the region, as well as for this mode of transport.
Since its origins, the Madrid underground has been the place great Spanish filmmakers have chosen as a setting. Although there are many titles linked in one way or another to filmmaking, Ópera Prima (1980) is perhaps one of the most relevant, as it was the directorial début of Fernando Trueba. Other notable films include Laberinto de pasiones (1982), in which Pedro Almodóvar places the main actress, Cecilia Roth, at the Aluche stop; and Tiovivo C.1950 (2004), by José Luis Garci, in which Elsa Pataky plays a ticket agent of the station.
