Biografia
Odell is a partner at 3pas Studios alongside Mexican comedian and director Eugenio Derbez. Derbez, Mexico’s most cherished comic star, previously directed the film Instructions Not Included, which grossed over $100 million worldwide. It became the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever in the US and the second highest-grossing film in any language in Mexico. 3pas Studios has a first-look deal with Pantelion Films, a joint venture between US entertainment studio Lionsgate and Mexican media giant Estudios Televisa. They are developing several feature films, including a remake of the French comedy The Valet.
Odell formerly served as Head of Production at Pantelion Films, where he developed and produced films targeting the Hispanic market in the US as well as audiences in Mexico and Latin America. His productions include the inspirational true story Spare Parts, starring George Lopez, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Marisa Tomei, and the coming-of-age comedy Girl in Progress, featuring Eva Mendes, Matthew Modine, and Patricia Arquette. He also produced Un Cuento Chino, a Spanish-Argentinean co-production starring Ricardo Darín (El Secreto de los Ojos) and written and directed by Sebastián Borensztein. This film was the top-grossing Argentinean release of 2011 and one of the highest-grossing Argentinean films ever. Internationally, it set box office records for Latin American films in Latin America and Europe. It received the Argentinean Academy Award for Best Feature and the Goya Award for Best Latin American Film. Additionally, it won multiple festival honors, including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Rome Film Festival.
Odell was executive producer on the English-language 3D family thriller The Games Maker, starring Joseph Fiennes and Ed Asner. Produced in co-production with Disney Latin America and filmed in Argentina by Pampa Films under director Juan Pablo Buscarini, the film had a wide release across Latin America in summer 2014 and continues to screen globally. Prior to Pantelion, Odell was President of Production at Panamax Films, producing feature films and TV movies for the Hispanic market under a deal with Lionsgate. The company produced and executive produced numerous films in both Spanish and English.
He also produced the arthouse Spanish-language thriller Sangre de Mi Sangre (formerly titled Padre Nuestro), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and screened at New Directors/New Films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Released by IFC, Sangre garnered two Independent Spirit Award nominations: Best First Feature (for which Odell was nominated) and Best Screenplay.
From 1992 to 2000, Odell lived in Colombia, where he began as a freelance journalist before becoming a Spanish-language television writer and screenwriter. He created and wrote over 300 hours of Spanish-language narrative television, including Fuego Verde, Colombia’s first-ever action series and one of the highest-rated shows on Colombian TV. He also co-wrote the Colombian political satire film Golpe de Estadio, which was nominated for Spain’s Goya Award in 1999 and submitted as Colombia’s Oscar entry in 2000. It remains one of Colombia’s highest-grossing films.
In addition to his production work, Odell is an educator who has taught screenwriting and production at Columbia University and The New School in New York City and has lectured on filmmaking throughout Latin America and Europe. He contributed to the film anthology Swimming Upstream: A Lifesaving Guide to Short Film Distribution, published by Focal Press, and to the professional textbook Producer to Producer, produced by Michael Wiese Productions, focusing on low-budget filmmaking.
Odell holds an MFA in film from Columbia University, graduating with honors. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America.
