First Look Images Released of Daniel Bruhl’s New Series “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld”

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Fashion becomes Daniel Brühl…

Disney+ has unveiled at the 45-year-old half-Spanish actor as the titular iconic designer in the new show Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, produced by leading French film and television company Gaumont.

Brühl, who stars in Rush, Good Bye, Lenin! and Captain America: Civil War, is shown sporting Lagerfeld’s trademark ponytail and black tailored suit of his later years.

Disney+ has also released a first subtitled trailer for the show.

The new images – which follow a silhouetted image teased by Disney+ in January – were released in unison with the announcement that the show will premiere at the Canneseries TV festival in April.

Gaumont produced the drama with Jour Premier for Disney+, which will launch the six-part bio-series on June 7. The series will be available in the U.S. on Hulu from that same date.

Adapted from Raphaëlle Bacqué’s best-seller ‘Kaiser Karl’, the series stars follows Lagerfeld’s ascension to the top of the fashion world, kicking off in 1972 when he was an unknown ready-to-wear designer.

It charts his meeting with long-time companion, the ambitious dandy, Jacques de Bascher (Théodore Pellerin) as well as his rivalry and friendship with fellow fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent (Arnaud Valois) and the latter’s businessman backer and partner Pierre Bergé (Alex Lutz).

Actress and director Agnès Jaoui plays Gabrielle Aghion, the founder of the house of Chloé, which contributed to Lagerfeld’s success.

The storyline also features a host of other fashion and cultural personalities in Lagerfeld’s entourage including Paloma Picasso (Jeanne Damas), Andy Warhol (Paul Spera), Marlene Dietrich (Sunnyi Melles) and Loulou de La Falaise (Claire Laffut).

Veteran German actress Lisa Kreuzer plays the designer’s mother, Elisabeth Lagerfeld.

French director and producer Jérôme Salle, better known for action and adventure pictures like Zulu, Kompromat and The Odyssey, oversaw the drama’s artistic production, with Arnaud de Crémiers at French production house Jour Premier.

Salle also directed episodes 1, 2 and 6 with Audrey Estrougo (Tout va bien, Suprêmes) directing episodes 3, 4 and 5.

The drama was co-created by Isaure Pisani-Ferry (Ganglands, Vampires), in the role of head writer, with Jennifer Have (Unfaithful, The Red Band Society) and Raphaëlle Bacqué.

The series was instigated by Christophe Riandee, deputy general director of Gaumont, which is headed by Sidonie Dumas.

The series is produced by Brühl Brühl Brühl for Gaumont and de Crémiers for Jour Premier.

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

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

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.

Bo’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.

Tessa Thompson’s Viva Maude Partners with Gaumont to Develop Raven Leilani’s Novel “Luster” for HBO

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Tessa Thompson is celebrating her luster…

Gaumont has teamed up with the 38-year-old half-Afro-Panamanian and part Mexican American actress’ Viva Maude production company to develop for HBO Luster, the bestselling debut by Raven Leilani.

Scripting the project will be handled by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Lileana Blain-Cruz, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. They are joint winners of the Obie Award for Marys Seacole, and are among the founders of the exploratory theatre collaboration, Afrofemononomy.

Edie is a young Black artist living a precarious existence in New York City when she takes a white lover in an open marriage, eventually moving in with him and his wife in the suburbs. There she not only finds herself in an increasingly tense relationship with the couple, but also becoming an unlikely mentor to their adopted Black daughter Akila. The debut novel quickly became a number one bestseller on the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other lists.

The potential English language drama series for HBO marks the first collaboration between Gaumont and Viva Maude’s Thompson and Kishori Rajan.

Nicolas Atlan, President of Gaumont US said company toppers are “beyond thrilled to be developing Luster with HBO and Viva Maude’s Tessa Thompson and Kishori Rajan. We were riveted by this groundbreaking book, written by the incredibly talented Raven Leilani, and are blown away at how quickly the series creative team which includes our writers, Lileana Blain-Cruz and Jackie Sibblies Drury, has come together. We can’t wait to get started.”

It’s not clear at this point if Thompson will star. She has a strong relationship with HBO from Westworld. She is generating awards buzz for the Sundance hit Passing, and wrapped the lead role of Valkyrie in the Taiki Waititi film Thor: Love and Thunder.

Said Thompson of the book: “Luster marks the daring debut by Raven Leilani, a seminal voice for her generation. In her work, which defies categorization, there is an astonishingly singular quality that speaks to spirit of the types of narratives Viva Maude aims to showcase — bold, beautifully crafted, unapologetically human, imaginative and unconventional — it is thrilling to be teamed with Gaumont and the stunning talents of Jackie Sibblies Drury and Lileana Blain-Cruz to develop this story at HBO, the perfect home.”

Marina de Tavira to Star in Spanish-Language Crime Drama Series “Kolonie”

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Marina de Tavira is heading to the scene of the crime…

The 46-year-old Mexican actress, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her work in Alfonso Cuaron’s Netflix Spanish-language film Roma, will star in the Spanish-language crime drama series Kolonie.

The project is in development between Narcos producer Gaumont and Redrum, which has worked on series including Narcos: Mexico and Amazon’s international drug thriller Zerozerozero.

Written by Carlos Rincones, who wrote on Netflix’s Mexican drama Tijuana, the series centers around an emotionally complex seasoned special agent, Adriana, played by de Tavira, who is tasked with investigating the brutal murder of a Mennonite boy in rural Chihuaua, Mexico. Once there, she partners with a rookie local policeman who recently abandoned the Mennonite community to join the police force. As they inch closer to solving the crime, they slowly uncover the justice they pursue is mired in a dark web of corruption and mysticism that extends beyond anything they could have ever imagined.

The series will be shot in Mexico with Redrum’s Stacy Perskie executive producing and Christian Gabela serving as head creative executive.

“Led by Gaumont’s Christian Gabela and his team, we are proud to develop Kolonie with our valued partner, Redrum, and are honored to have Marina de Tavira, one of the most talented actresses of today, star in the series,” said Nicolas Atlan, President, Gaumont U.S. “At Gaumont we take pride in producing important, local stories that resonate on a global scale, and we can’t wait to bring this riveting story to life.”

Perskie added, “We feel the Mennonite communities in Northern Mexico are a fascinating and unexplored part of our culture and telling a great story with a powerful female lead in that world is something that we are very excited about. We feel very lucky about having Marina de Tavira, one of the most emblematic Mexican actresses of our time, play that role and spearhead this project, which will shed light upon one of Mexico’s hidden corners.”

de Tavira earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for playing Sofia in Roma and is also set to star in Lisa Joy’s Reminiscence alongside Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson and Thandie Newton.

Pluto TV to Stream All Five Seasons of Wagner Moura’s Netflix Series “Narcos”

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Wagner Moura is traveling to Pluto…

All five seasons of Netflix’s Narcos, starring the 44-year-old Brazilian actor, will premiere next week on Pluto TV.

It will be the series’ first streaming run on a free, ad-supported U.S. platform.

The distribution plan, which involves a partnership with Gaumont, will kick off on October 20. Narcos will be streamed across four different linear channels on Pluto, whose ad-supported service now has 26.6 million monthly active users. There will be multiple airtimes in both English and Spanish.

Narcos will stream on Pluto TV’s Crime Drama and Narco Novelas channels and its own branded single-series, marathon-style channels – Narcos and Narcos en Español. Spanish-speaking versions of Narcos will stream with English subtitles, and respectively, English-speaking versions of Narcos will stream with Spanish subtitles catering to multi-lingual audiences.

Season 1 of Narcos will stream weeknights at 10PM ET, with catch-up episodes the following day beginning at 8PM ET. Bonus weekend marathons will be offered following the series premiere. Pluto TV will debut a new season each month through February 2021.

Narcos has been part of innovative distribution deals before. It aired on Univision in a major cross-promotion in 2016, marking an unusual reverse path for a series from streaming to broadcast TV.

Pluto, which is owned by ViacomCBS, is known for being entrepreneurial and building channels around individual shows, as it did with The Walking Dead. A bilingual approach also makes sense given its international expansion. also has been expanding internationally. It also launched Pluto TV Latino, a Spanish-language offering, in 2019.

“As the adoption of ad-supported streaming continues to accelerate, we are excited to build on that momentum and align with esteemed creators and producers in search of new ways to introduce audiences to their coveted collection of award-winning content,” Pluto SVP Content Strategy and Global Partnerships Amy Kuessner said. “Working in partnership with Gaumont, a longtime pioneer in the world of streaming, to bring the acclaimed Netflix Original series Narcos to Pluto TV is further testament to the evolving free streaming landscape that is rapidly gaining foothold for prestige partners, game-changing content and audiences alike.”

Moura earned Golden Globe and Imagen Award nominations for his performance as notorious drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar on the series.

Miguel Bernardeau to Star in Gaumont & Grupo Ganga’s Dark Spanish Surf Drama “Playa Negra”

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Life’s a beach for Miguel Bernardeau…

The 23-year-oldSpanish actor and Elite star will star in Gaumont and Grupo Ganga’s first Spanish co-production, the dark surf drama Playa Negra.

Gaumont is developing the project, which will be shot on location in the Canary Islands, as an eight-part one-hour drama.

The scripted series is being spearheaded by Spanish filmmaker Susana Casares, co-executive producer of Netflix’s Luis Miguel.

The YA drama is set in a fishing village on the Spanish island of Lanzarote.

Playa Negra follows newcomer Hugo, played Bernardeau, in his quest to get close to the man he suspects is his father. In the process, he befriends a tight-knit group of teens who dream of making it big in Lanzarote’s competitive surfing scene, and together become unwittingly embroiled in the island’s darkest secrets.

Gaumont’s SVP, Creative Executive, Head of Latin American and Spain Christian Gabelasaid the show combines a coming-of-age theme with elements of suspense.

“Alongside Susana and Grupo Ganga, we have created a concept that young adult audiences everywhere will identify with as they immerse themselves in not only the beauty of the location and the thrill of the sport but also the complexities facing the characters throughout series,” he added.

Bernardeau’s previous credits include Caronte, Sabuesos and Inhibidos.

Sandra Cisneros’ Iconic “The House on Mango Street” to be Adapted into a TV Drama

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Sandra Cisneros’ iconic novel is headed to the small screen…

The 65-year-old Mexican-American author’s coming-of-age novel The House on Mango Street will be adapted into a television drama by Gaumont, the producer behind the Netflix hit Narcos.

The House on Mango Street is made up of a series of vignettes about the characters that populate a blue-collar Chicago neighborhood, seen through the eyes of a Mexican-American teenager, who acts as narrator for the reader.

Regarded as a classic in Chicana literature, the 1984 book has been described as a telenovela of sorts by The New York Timesand has made its way on to the curriculum in some U.S. schools and colleges.

Cisneros has previously declined offers to adapt the book for film and television, according to Gaumont, but she changed her mind amid the explosion in streaming services and the ongoing dialogue about immigration in America.

“I write because the world we live in is a house on fire, and the people we love are burning,” she said. “Television has grown up in the last 20 years and now is the time to tell our stories.”

Cisneros will serve as an executive producer on the show, if commissioned. The project will be overseen by Alexandra Hunter, Gaumont’s senior vice president of creative affairs, and Tely Morrison, manager of creative affairs.

Gene Stein, Gaumont’s president of U.S. Television, said: “The House on Mango Street is a timeless story that captures the struggles, dreams, and spirit of a young woman who epitomizes the experience of many young women coming of age in America today. It’s an inspiring and uplifting story that speaks to the challenges faced by so many trying to find their place in society.”

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

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

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.

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.

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: Gaumont