Tag Archives: Bela Lugosi

Endemol Shine Boomdog Acquires Rights to Carlos Fuentes Vampire Novel “Vlad,” Developing TV Series

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Endemol Shine Boomdog is vlad about Carlos Fuentes’ work…

The Mexico City-based production company, a unit of Banijay Americas, has acquired the rights to the late Mexican novelist and essayist’s vampire novel “Vlad.”

Carlos FuentesEndemol Shine Boomdog will develop a series based on the bestseller with lauded showrunner J.M. Cravioto attached as both showrunner and executive producer.

Jerry Rodriguez, Endemol Shine Boomdog’s senior VP and head of scripted content, and Clara Machado are developing the project for Endemol Shine Boomdog.

Carl Zitelmen is adapting Fuentes’ novel for television.

The story follows the mythical vampire who arrives in Mexico City in search of the soul of his beloved Mina, reincarnated as a Mexican woman. To his consternation, Vlad finds her inhabiting a progressive liberal who is not impressed at all by him. Having lost touch with the modern world, the 600-year-old predator struggles with panic attacks and blackout episodes, while he satiates his cravings for fresh blood.

“Vlad offers us the opportunity to reimagine a classic horror story and transform it into a modern thriller. It’s a love story, a high-concept drama that shows us both the savage and the vulnerable side of an immortal being,” said Rodriguez, adding: “We are always seeking out, adapting and creating interesting stories that navigate between genres with ease, stories that can take us from terror to tenderness, from tears to laughter and connect with different audiences in many levels and ‘Vlad’ is a great example of this kind of story.”

“We are looking at ‘Vlad’ as a multi-season series; It’s a character-driven show with complex characters that everyone can relate to,” Rodriguez told Variety. “The vampire himself is going to face a lot of conflicts that are part of the human condition nowadays,” he said, adding that rights negotiations with Silvia Lemus, Fuentes’ widow, was “always amicable and in the best of terms.”“She cares a lot about the property and we went to great lengths to ensure that we would produce a high-concept series that would honor both the author and his story,” Rodriguez explained.

Noting that Boomdog is currently developing a number of horror genre IPs, Rodriguez remarked: “This adaptation of “Vlad” goes way beyond a classic horror, or even a horror show; it’s a mixed genre project that has elements of a modern thriller, a love story, a powerful drama and even some comedy… just like life itself.”

“I find it very attractive and well-timed to propose a new look at classic genres such as thriller and horror through vampirism and romance,” Cravioto agreed. “I think ‘Vlad’ pays homage, preserves and rethinks this classic story from Fuentes’ novel, which on a personal level as a director and story seeker, poses a new narrative and formal challenge,” he added.

Cravioto, one of the most celebrated of film and television directors, producers and screenwriters in Mexico, served as showrunner and director for Netflix’s Diablero and as director of series Monarca, among others. His feature film Malvada will debut in theaters later this year while Corazonada is heading to Paramount+.

Winner of a slew of top literary honors, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize and the Belisario Dominguez Medal of Honor, Fuentes was regarded as one of the illustrious writers in the Spanish-speaking world before his death in 2012. Some of Fuentes’ most acclaimed novels include The Death of Artemio Cruz, Aura, Terra Nostra, The Old Gringo and Christopher Unborn.

Vlad was first published in 2004 as a short story as part of Fuentes’ Inquieta Compañía and was later released as a novel in 2012, shortly before his death. The New York Times in its 2012 review of Vlad, said “it displays the strengths of a great writer’s late oeuvre to excellent effect” and Publisher’s Weekly stated the novel “follows the pattern of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but infuses the story with a modern sensibility and vivid imagery.”

Interest in the legendary vampire has sparked recently in the wake of news in September about two separate takes on the making of the Spanish-language version of the Bela Lugosi classic, Dracula.

In the first project, Eugenio Derbez is attached to star and executive produce comedic series They Came at Night (working title), which is in development at TelevisaUnivision’s SVOD platform Vix+.

Separately, Gato Grande announced at Madrid TV event Iberseries & Platino Industria that Money Heist star Alvaro Morte would play the actor Carlos Villarias who took on the Dracula role in the Spanish-language version.

Alvaro Morte to Star in Gato Grande’s Spanish Series “Talkies”

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Alvaro Morte is taking a bite into a new project…

The 47-year-old Spanish actor and Money Heist star will star in the series Talkies, from Luis Miguel producer Gato Grande.

Alvaro MorteTalkies covers the period between 1930 and 1934, an unusual time when foreign-language versions were shot on the same sets where the original English-language films were shot before dubbing or sub-titling technology existed.

Helmed by Money Heist director Alex Rodrigo and co-developed with Catalonia’s Veranda, the 8 x 45” series centers on the making of Spanish-language ‘talkies’ some of which, like the Spanish version of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, were considered far superior. Morte will play the actor Carlos Villarias, who took on the Dracula role in the Spanish version.

“We’ve got 40% covered and are seeking partners from the U.S., Spain and/or Latin America to complete the financing,” said Maximiliano “Tate” Sanguine, VP of development & creative production at Gato Grande/MGM.

Plans are to shoot the ambitious project in Mexico and the U.S.

Talkies is one of five projects with Spanish connections among Gato Grande’s 55 high-concept projects in the pipeline. Of the 55 projects, 20 are in English for the Anglo-Saxon market while 35 are aimed at the Spanish-speaking market, with these five in co-development with Spain.

“The pandemic may have delayed our production plans but it allowed us to develop a more robust pipeline,” said Sanguine who expects three projects to go into production shortly.

The bi-cultural company with offices in Los Angeles and Mexico is 50% owned by MGM, which was acquired by Amazon for $8.5 billion in March. “We are free to shop our projects around; there is no first-look deal with Prime Video at the moment,” Sanguine noted.

The company behind Luis Miguel: The Series has also snagged Osvaldo Benavides to star in its upcoming dramatic series Las Mil Vidas. Penned and to be directed by Marina Seresesky (“The Open Door”), Las Mil Vidas is inspired by real events and centers on a woman in Madrid whose 8-year-old son has vanished.

Four years later, a psychic sends her a YouTube video of a young boy in Mexico who has been drawing the plaza where her son disappeared, along with his name and the Spanish flag. She contacts the Mexican journalist (Benavides) who interviewed the boy. Aside from helping her find the boy, he introduces her to a Mexican network of ‘Ancores,’ reincarnated people who help others like her. When she meets the boy, there is an instant connection. She takes him back to Spain where she hopes he can show her where her son has been buried.

Las Mil Vidas has already received some recognition in the market, winning the top prize in Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s 2019 CIIF market and selected by Spanish film institute ICAA to represent Spain in the 2020 Marché du Film, among others.

Meanwhile, Chile’s Marcela Said has written and will direct and showrun Breves Amores Eternos, which takes place in Mexico and Spain.

Based on the eponymous novel by Pedro Mairal, the series revolves around a diversity of women and their interlacing romantic life stories. Buenos Aires-based Kapow co-produces.

Another series with Spanish connections is romantic saga set in pre-revolutionary Cuba, El Malecón, with Jaime Llorente confirmed to take on the lead role of Patricio.

Based on the novel El Encanto by Madrid-based Susana López Rubio, the series follows Patricio as he flees Francoist Spain to Havana where he meets Gloria, a spy for the democratic liberal party, who is married to a powerful Mafioso. Alberto Ruiz Rojo is attached to direct some episodes.

Lopez Rubio, Juan Beiro and Javier Holgado Vicente will direct episodes of the fifth Spanish co-developed project from Gato Grande, Reinas de la Tele. Conceived by Lopez Rubio, it deftly combines reality and whodunit thriller genres.

The series opens on Caty who is about to shoot the fourth season of her Kardashian-like reality show and wakes up beside a corpse in her bed. As she drags the body to the basement, she is caught by the camera operator who agrees to keep the secret and help her find the killer.

“This will be 100% shot in Spain. We hope to have it packaged by the end of the year,” said Sanguine, who lauded the clever twists and turns in the story.

Eugenio Derbez Developing Workplace Comedy Series “They Came At Night” with ViX+

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It’s Night time for Eugenio Derbez.

The 61-year-old Mexican actor/producer is developing the workplace comedy series They Came At Night with ViX+ under the first-look deal between 3Pas Studios and TelevisaUnivision.

Eugenio DerbezThey Came At Night is inspired by true events and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a group of underdogs who went on to create the critically acclaimed Spanish version of the 1930 horror classic, Dracula.

While Bela Lugosi filmed Dracula during the day on the Universal lot, at the end of each day another cast and crew arrived to make the same exact movie… only in Spanish.

Using the same sets, costumes, and a translated version of the script, the cast and crew of the Spanish Dracula filmed from dusk to dawn, and, against all odds, the critical consensus is that the Spanish version turned out to be the better film.

Derbez is set to star in the comedy created and written by Rob Greenberg and Bob Fisher.

Production services on They Came At Night will be handled by 3pas Studios’ Mexican production services company, Visceral.

“I have not worked in scripted Spanish language TV comedy for well over ten years and was looking for something really special to come back,” Derbez said in a statement. “This story really jumped out at me because it tells the story of Latinos always having to accomplish more with fewer resources and harder conditions. It’s also a world we’ve never explored in Spanish language TV, Hollywood in the 30s but like every moment in US history, the Latinos were there and doing their part even if history forgot them. And of course, it’s ripe for so much humor…”