Out Director Pedro Almodóvar to Reunite with Penelope Cruz for New Film

Out Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almod�var is set to work on a new feature film, teaming up with his longtime muse Penelope Cruz, according to Variety.

The movie is called "Madres Paralelas" ("Parallel Mothers") and the outlet writes it will be set in Madrid, like many of Almod�var's films, adding that it finds him returning to his "biggest creative inspiration – motherhood – and a model that has served him very well over the last 30 years."

Almod�var is known for films like "All About My Mother," "Volver" and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," which explore the themes of motherhood and queerness.

Agust�n Almod�var – Pedro Almod�var's brother and producer – told Variety the film will go into pre-production in October and it will shoot from February 2021. The movie will then hit theaters in Spain by the end of the year.

The filmmaker is said to have been working on "Madres Paralelas" for some time but that three months of lockdown due to COVID-19 helped him finish the screenplay, which Variety writes is about "two mothers who give birth the same day."

"The film follows their parallel lives over their first and second years raising their children, Almod�var told Spanish press agency EFE, which broke the news of what looks like Almod�var's next feature."

The new movie follows Almod�var's 2019 feature "Pain and Glory," which reunited the director with his longtime collaborator Antonio Banderas. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature and Banderas earned a Best Actor nod. Cruz also starred in that film, playing a mother role.

This isn't the only project Almod�var has in the works. Variety reports that in two weeks he will begin shooting his adaption of Jean Cocteau's one-act play "The Human Voice" – s short but his first English-language project. That stars Tilda Swinton.