Prime Video to Premiere Armando Bo’s FIFA Gate-Themed Docuseries “El Presidente: The Corruption Game” in November

Armando Bo’s look into how a Brazilian man wrestled control from Europe of the biggest sport on earth is headed to Prime Video.

Amazon will release the 43-year-old Argentine Oscar-winning screenwriter and film director’s Amazon Original El Presidente: The Corruption Game on November 4.

Armando Bo's Amazon Original El Presidente: The Corruption GameBo’s Latin American series focuses on João Havelange.

In a neat historical echo, backed by Bo’s About Entertainment, Narcos producer Gaumont TV, Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula and Argentine powerhouse Kapow, the second season in the El Presidente series saga of soccer business high jinks and low morals now looks set to become one of the biggest soccer titles released in the countdown to the greatest show on earth, the FIFA World Cup.

Whether FIFA will be entirely comfortable with it is another matter, if a trailer, shared in exclusivity with Variety, is anything to go by.

One of Iberseries’ biggest market premieres, El Presidente: The Corruption Game had its world premiere of its first two episodes on October 14 at this year’s reinvigorated Festival do Rio.

Season 1 turned on the feckless, sly, amoral but simpático Sergio Jadue, a Chilean small town soccer club supremo who’s elected president of Chile’s soccer association. The wrong man in the right place, a fish out of water, he rises in FIFA’s hierarchy, sparking FIFA Gate, a $150 million corruption scandal. Bo tells the story as ironic farce.

Now narrated by Jadue, The President: The Corruption Game teases out the human tragedy in a still arch comedy, which unspools on a far grander scale.

It takes on another extraordinary – but far more towering – figure, Brazil’s Havelange, FIFA president over 1974-98. A hulking giant with dashing blond looks, Havelange dedicated his life to serving Brazil – swimming in the 1936 Berlin Games, working as the vice-president of the Brazilian Sports Confederation from 1958 to 1973, when Brazil won three World Cups – and to serving himself from FIFA’s gravy train.

Glimpsed in the trailer, colorful scenes kick off El Presidente: The Corruption Game with Havelange fuming as Pele is literally kicked out of the first round of England’s 1966 Word Cup, Havelange, the son of a Belgian arms dealer, is outraged by a FIFA meeting where “third world” members are forced to sit in a different room from their European colleagues.

In 1974, as Johan Cruyff forged the modern game on-field, Havelange began to revolutionize its economics and reach – central events in the second season.

Seizing control of FIFA from Sir Stanley Rous, a neo-colonial buffer, over the next 24 years, he created soccer’s modern global business, powered by sponsorship and TV deals, while enlarging the World Cup to 32 teams and introducing a FIFA Women’s World Cup.

But Havelange did so at a tremendous cost, opening FIFA up to multi-million bribery and money laundering and losing his friends, family and honor when he fell into final total disgrace over the 2015-16 FIFA Gate at the age of 98.

El Presidente: The Corruption Game, a mixture of near doc recreation and self-declared fiction, begins with a doddery Havelange, now celebrating his 100th birthday. Only one guest accepts his invitation.

Much of this is caught in the fast-paced, extensive trailer. Havelange used Brazil’s stunning 1970 World Cup triumph to bid to become FIFA president. He is rebuffed by Europe’s still colonial FIFA members. “Even if Brazil wins 100 World Cups, decisions will never be made in the colonies,” FIFA general secretary Helmut Kässer tells him.

Havelange launches an extraordinary play for the votes of poor countries, winning them by his promises, backhanders and a tour of Africa with Pele.

“FIFA is entering the future,” Havelange announces in the trailer. Nobody transformed soccer more off the field more than he did. It wasn’t all for the better.

Armando Bó Developing Two Projects for Television: “Las Malas” & “Cromanon”

Armando Bó has lined up two Argentina-themed television projects…

The 41-year-old Argentine screenwriter and film director, who won an Oscar for co-writing Birdman, has unveiled his first television slate since launching his own production company, About Entertainment, earlier this year.

Armando Bó,

Bo is developing two series based on well-known Argentinian stories.

About Entertainment has acquired the rights to Las Malas, the 2019 autobiographic novel by Camila Sosa Villada. And, Bo’s company is also developing Cromanon, based on true events of the tragedy that took place at the venue in Balvanera, Argentina in 2004.

Las Malas (Bad Girls) tells the story of a 19-year-old trans woman who moves to the big city and joins a group of trans sex workers that create a unique community. This story of self-discovery has two sides: one is realistic, harsh, and hostile; the other is fantastical, united, and thoughtful. Throughout their journey these ‘bad girls’ will take care of each other as a family.

Cromanonis a coming-of-age series that follows a group of teenagers surrounded by the catastrophic true events that took place in Argentina on December 30, 2004, when a fire broke out at the venue, during a rock concert, killing 194 teenagers and injuring over a thousand others. This unnatural tragedy was a breaking point for a generation and changed the culture of a whole country, as never before had so many young people died in a single incident.

Bó is the showrunner, director and executive producer of the eight-part dramedy series El Presidente, which launched in June on Amazon Prime Video.

He shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Nicolás GiacoboneAlejandro G. Iñárritu, and Alexander Dinelaris for Birdman. The quartet also won the Golden Globe

He followed by writing/directing and producing Animal.

Karla Souza to Star in ABC’s Family Comedy Pilot “Home Economics”

Karla Souza is cooking things up…

The 34-year-old Mexican actress will star in ABC’s family comedy pilot Home Economics.

Karla Souza

Starring Caitlin McGee and Topher Gracethe series is described as ‘similar to Modern Family’ and revolves around three adult siblings: one in the 1 percent, one in the middle class, and one barely holding on.

The project hails from writers Michael Colton and John Aboud, the Tannenbaum Co.Lionsgate Television and ABC Studios. It was written by 

Colton and Aboud and inspired by Colton’s family. 

McGee plays the oldest sibling, Sarah, a therapist for at-risk kids, married to a teacher, and they’re often scraping to make ends meet. Of her siblings, she earns the least money, but she does the most socially important work (as she frequently reminds them). She’s a doting mom to her two kids and tries to be a guru to her two brothers, who obviously would be lost without her wisdom. 

Grace plays Tom, the middle sibling and middle-class.

Souza will play Marina. A proud first-generation New Yorker whose parents came from Latin America, Marina is a former lawyer married to struggling novelist Tom (Grace). She’s constantly exhausted by caring for her seven-year-old daughter and toddler twin boys. Marina would like to go back to work one day, if only to escape her children. A rule-follower, Marina is often in conflict with her brother-in-law Connor, who never met a corner he didn’t try to cut. She’s pushed to the max and ready to call everyone out on how much easier they have it.

Souza is returning to ABC after starring in How To Get Away With Murder for the first five seasons. She recurred on the sixth and final season while shooting Pablo Larrain’s upcoming limited series El Presidente for Amazon

After starring in three of the highest grossing films in Mexico (Que Culpa Tiene El NinoNosotros Los Nobles and Instructions Not Included), Souza was last seen on the big screen starring in Everybody Loves Somebody for writer/director Catalina Aguilar Mastretta

Karla Souza to Star in Amazon’s FIFA Gate-Inspired Drama “El Presidente”

Karla Souzawill be acting presidential…

The 33-year-old Mexican actress and How to Get Away with Murder star is set to star in Amazon’s FIFA drama El Presidente.

Karla Souza

Andrés Parra (Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal) and Paulina Gaitán (Diablo Guardian) also star in the eight-part series, which is produced by Oscar‐winning director Pablo Larrain’s production company Fabula (A Fantastic Woman), Narcosproducer Gaumont and Argentine producer Kapow.

Birdman’sArmando Bowill direct and executive-produce the series, which is inspired by the real-life characters and events behind the 2015 “FIFA Gate” corruption scandal.

The series explores the scandal from the angle of a small‐time Chilean football club president who rises from obscurity to become a key player in a $150M bribery conspiracy. Set against the backdrop of cities across Latin America, the U.S. and Europe, the series explores the sports scandal that rocked the world through the story of Jadue (Parra), a small‐time Chilean football club president who rose from obscurity to become a key player in a $150M bribery conspiracy at the hand of the infamous president of the Argentine football association, Julio Grondona.

It will air on Amazon’s SVOD service in more than 200 countries and territories.

El Presidente will show the world, with loads of irony, how the most beloved sport of all is in fact a multimillionaire business run by a ridiculous mob we have never seen before: the Football Mafia,” added Bo.

Souza’s previous credits include Everybody Loves Somebody and 31 días.