Tag Archives: David Schulner

Eva Longoria Developing English-Adaptation of Spain’s “Gran Hotel” for ABC

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Eva Longoria is having a gran old time…

ABC is developing Grand Hotel, a soapy drama from the42-year-old Mexican American actress/producer and former Desperate Housewives star and writer Brian Tanen.

Eva Longoria

The project, from Longoria and Ben Spector’s UnveliEVAble Entertainment and ABC Studios, is based on the popular Spanish telenovela Gran Hotel.

Written by Tanen, Grand Hotel is a soapy drama set against the backdrop of a Miami Beach hotel, centering around the family who owns the business, the staff who run it, and the explosive secrets they hide under the perfect exterior.

Tanen, Longoria and Spector executive produce alongside Oliver Bachert and Christian Gockel of Beta Film, which distributes the original series.

Gran Hotel

UnveliEVAble, ABC and ABC Studios also developed a Grand Hotel adaptation last season with a different writer. Televisa USA previously took a stab at an English-language adaptation of the series set in pre-Castro Havana.

Gran Hotel was created and produced by Bambu Producciones and ran on Spain’s Antena 3 for three seasons, with its first season reaching a 18.5% share.

Dubbed “a Spanish Downton Abbey,” the original series, set in 1905 Spain, has been a top international seller for Beta Films.

Longoria recently teamed with another former Desperate Housewives writer, David Schulner, for immigrant drama Lucky Boy, with Nisha Ganatra directing.

Arjona Lands Lead Role in NBC’s “Wizard of Oz” Drama “Emerald City”

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There’s no place like home for Adria Arjona…

The 23-year-old Puerto Rican/Guatemalan has landed her first series lead.

Adria Arjona

She’s been cast as Dorothy in Emerald City, NBC’s 10-episode straight-to-series Wizard of Oz drama.

The casting follows Arjona’s previous television credits. She recently scored her first series regular role in TNT’s untitled Miami drama and her first recurring stints on CBS’ Person of Interest and the upcoming season of HBO’s True Detective.

Emerald City, originally developed during the 2013-14 season, was recently resurrected with a new writer/executive producer, David Schulner. He is now joined by Shaun Cassidy, who also will serve as executive producer.

In Emerald City, in the blink of a tornado’s eye, 20-year-old Dorothy Gale (Arjona) and her K9 police dog are transported to another world, one far removed from our own — a mystical land of competing kingdoms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. This is the fabled Land of Oz in a way you’ve never seen before, where wicked witches don’t stay dead for long and a young girl becomes a headstrong warrior who holds the fate of kingdoms in her hands.

Described as a modern and dark reimagining of the classic tale of Oz in the vein of Game Of Thrones, drawing upon stories from Baum’s original 14 books, Emerald City hails from Universal Television.