Actrius, Ocaña, retrat intermittent, La ciutat dels prodigis… All of them are film titles, all of them have been filmed and tell stories that take place in the Catalan capital and all of them have their origin in a novel. Barcelona is a very good plot or literary setting, but nowadays these narratives are often told in images. LAAB 2024, an ICUB initiative, is working to make it easier for our city to become a film set (pictured, a film crew in front of the Born. Photo: Laura Guerrero).

LAAB is a laboratory for the adaptation of published and edited literary works linked to the city of Barcelona. The programme, which is being reactivated this year 2024, began as an initiative in 2018, but now it has been revived and is being promoted again as a project of the Directorate of Creative Industries. The initiative is one of the measures to promote the audiovisual sector and aims to provide a meeting place for publishers, scriptwriters and audiovisual production companies.

The aim is to simplify the acquisition of rights to literary works about Barcelona so that producers or programmers in the audiovisual sector can acquire them and turn them into films. The Laboratory is in charge of promoting literary works that it has previously examined and that are considered ready to be turned into audiovisual products.

The LAAB has a catalogue of titles, including works by Jordi Sierra i Fabra, Joan Anton Baulenas, Julià de Jòdar and Care Santos, among many other authors who have written works set in the city.

The project, in its 2024 version, will be presented at an event as part of the activities of the BCN Film Festival at Casa Seat on 24 April (12 noon). Cases of films that have emerged from this initiative will be studied and a debate will be held on the subject of Author’s rights: production and script. Experiences on the negotiation of adaptation rights.

If you would like more details about the LAAB 2024 programme, please consult the website for all the information available.