Like a song or a recipe, a good story is always universal. But each country's own taste is more popular than any other. Streaming platforms, which are getting bigger and more competitive, are looking for stories that fit a global audience but are also particularly successful in their markets. Also knowing that something very local can be an immense global success, as was the case with series like Money Heist or the South Korean Squid Game. Therefore, in 2024, platforms like Netflix will bet on non-English content, keeping an eye on the Latin American and Spanish-speaking markets. For Netflix this year, four of the most important premieres are Ibero-American. This was demonstrated in two recent content presentations: on Wednesday in their California offices in Los Angeles and on Thursday in Madrid.
At the Tudum Theater in Los Angeles, fifty media companies attended a full breakdown of the global program by the platform's leaders, led by Bela Bajaria, one of the most powerful women in global audiovisual, vice president of content and number two at Netflix. Obviously, long-awaited series with large audiences such as the third season of The Bridgertons (which will be released in two parts on May 16 and June 13) or the second season of The Diplomat (all year round) have taken a prominent place in the series Presentation. Scenes from new releases such as “The Gentlemen” (directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Theo James in March), Tina Fey's 1990s-set comedy “Girls5Eva” (in March) and the second season of “The Squid Game” (in March). also to see. throughout 2024). But soon the presentation showed the power of other markets, and the standout examples were all in Spanish and Portuguese. First with three important fiction series coming out in 2024 from Argentina, Brazil and Colombia: The Eternauta, Senna and One Hundred Years of Solitude. And then with a Spanish documentary series, LaLiga.
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As vice president and head of content for Latin America Paco Ramos explained on stage, “two-thirds of Netflix’s audience comes from outside the United States,” and so the bet is clear. As of 2022, according to Pew Research, there were nearly 64 million Spanish speakers living in the United States, representing between 15 and 20% of the population, making them crucial to one of the country's most important entertainment companies. “Local audiences are increasingly looking for more authentic content,” he later told EL PAÍS. “And it continues to become more and more successful, traveling and growing.” The press release distributed by the company highlighted 26 series in a language other than English. These included three Spaniards (The Asunta Case, LaLiga, Élite in the eighth and final season), an Argentine (El Eternauta), a Colombian (One Hundred Years of Solitude) and a Brazilian (Senna).
None of them have an exact release date, although it is known that the Colombian blockbuster “One Hundred Years of Solitude” will be released at the end of the year. The adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez's masterpiece, which his children collaborated on, is currently filming in Bogotá and on Colombia's Caribbean coast with a 100% local crew. In the presentation we were able to see scenes of Macondo from the series and also Colonel Aureliano Buendía in front of the firing squad. Another adaptation is the Argentinian El Eternauta, a famous science fiction comic from the late 1950s written by Héctor Germán Oesterheld (who disappeared along with his four daughters on Christmas 1977 during the Argentine dictatorship) and with cartoons by Francisco Solano López (died 2011). ). The cast is led by Ricardo Darín as Juan Salvo. Filming began last May. The premiere is expected before summer.
In Brazil, Senna stands out, shot partly in English and partly in Portuguese, as seen in the first trailer during the Netflix presentation. It tells the story of famous racing driver Ayrton Senna, whose death during the San Marino Grand Prix marks the 30th anniversary of his death on May 1st. The pilot's family has contributed to this six-part production, which will star 30-year-old Brazilian actor Gabriel Leone. He was barely nine months old when the national idol died.
The platform has also shown the first images of an ambitious documentary series about the Spanish football league called LaLiga. Footballers and coaches such as Iker Casillas, Antoine Griezmann and Diego Pablo Simeone take part. On the platform they recognize that football is not the sport with the most followers in the United States, although its fan base is growing, but they know the enormous potential that the Spanish competition has in Latin America and in many other countries, in addition to Spain World. . Even Bajaria, number two on Netflix, has stated that she is excited about this content: “I just love football,” she laughed.
The life of Carmen Cervera
Another presentation of Netflix content took place in Madrid on Thursday, with the platform focusing on the Spanish content expected for the year. The list of fiction series that will appear in the coming months is already long, including titles such as Iron Hand, The Asunta Case, Not One More, Clanes, Respira, 1992, Asalto al Banco Central and The Last Night in Tremor for the eighth and final season of Elite. There are also films like “Wall with Wall”, “Through Your Look”, “The Champion” and “Hole 2”.
Two of the biggest stars of current Spanish audiovisual production, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, attended the event to present two new projects that they are running at Netflix, in this case as producers. On the one hand, they are behind the series Superstar created by Nacho Vigalondo, which revolves around the artistic beginnings of the singer Yurena at a time when she still called herself Tamara. “Superstar” will be, in Ambrossi’s words, a story about “television as a double-edged sword.” It was the 1990s and Spanish television was an area where anything could happen, for example characters who were not destined to be famous, who could even be described as geeks, became stars.
First picture of the cast of the series “Superstar”.
“It was a wild moment on TV and in Spain. There are a lot of biopics now that sweeten the character and I really liked Yo, Tonya with a wilder and crazier tone,” said Javier Calvo. The series, of which the first image of its cast describing its characters has been shown, will also show “how to pay for this cruelty and drag it into family relationships.” Television raises you up and at the same time drags you down.” Ingrid García- Jonsson, Natalia de Molina, Secun de la Rosa, Pepón Nieto, Carlos Areces, Julián Villagrán and Rocío Ibáñez are responsible for the interpretation of Tamara, Loly Álvarez, Leonardo Dantés, Tony Genil, Paco Porras, Arlequín and Margarita Seisdedos.
Calvo and Ambrossi will also be the producers of a new version of the film Mi Querida Señorita, directed in 1972 by Jaime de Arimañán, who signed the script together with José Luis Borau. The film, starring José Luis López Vázquez, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1973. The Javis, who have not announced the names of the cast or the direction of the project, assure that it will be an update of their story . “Times have changed and we believe it is a good time to revisit this story, a wonderful and mainstream story about gender identity and love. The creative challenge is how much it can be updated without losing the essence,” they said.
The last big announcement of the day starred Baroness Thyssen, Carmen Cervera. She will be the focus of a documentary series that will tell her story and, according to Netflix's official statement, “uncover many questions that the public has been asking for years.” In the Baroness's short presentation, she assured that the project arose from her belief that it was time to tell her life from the beginning. Production company Komodo Studio, creators of I Am Georgina (a show that has confirmed a third season focusing on her stay in Saudi Arabia), will be in charge of the project.
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