Chile TV: Drama Series in the Pipeline
PAMPLONA, Spain — Conecta Fiction will see producers bring the strongest lineup of Chilean drama series in history. Following, just some of the highlights of projects which will be presented or are moving forward in Chile:
‘AZTEC GANGSTA WARRIOR’
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Prod: Zona Cinema, Epika Content
Penned by Diego Niño with Francisca Fuenzalida Moure on board to direct, this series follows a rebellious modern-day gang member who learns that he is the descendant of the Aztec dynasty of the Eagle Warriors. Along with the discovery comes a responsibility to discover his worth and fulfill a mystical dynasty.
‘BRAVE RACE’
Prod: Tridi 3D Films, Atomica
Based on reality but written as fiction, “Brave Race” puts under a microscope some of the most passionate fan-bases in all of Latin American soccer: Chile’s Colo Colo, Alianza in Peru, Atlético Nacional de Medellín in Colombia, Chacarita Juniors in Argentina, Flamengo in Brazil and Atlante in Mexico. Six stories featuring groups of friends who live and die for their clubs will fill six episodes featuring themes of friendship, rivalry and resilience. Hernán Caffiero and Álvaro Cabello are writing with Caffiero set to direct.
‘THE CLIFF’
The first project out of the gate from Mediapro Chile, Benjamin Vicuña stars as a man who having been held responsible for a tragic bus accident, dedicates his life to talking people out of a throwing themselves off a cliff, until he realizes that the deaths there are not always what they seem. A powerful creative team of Martin Hodara (“Black Snow”) and Pablo Larraín “Profugos” co-writer Enrique Videla.
‘THE DENTIST’
Prod: Ceneca Productions
Inspired by the historical fact that the first two serial killers of the 19th century to be captured were caught in Chile thanks to research done by forensic dentists; “The Dentist” posits the question, what if Jack the Ripper had fled the U.K. and searched for greener pastures in Valparaiso, Chile? The series is penned by Julio Rojas and will be co-directed by Matías Bize and Juan Ignacio Savatini.
‘IN COLD BLOOD: AT THE END OF THE WORLD: SEASON 2’
Prod: Villano, Mega
Following the breakout success of “The Hunt” for Chilean broadcaster Mega, the series returns with “In Cold Blood,” playing on familiar themes and similarly set in the endless expanse of South America’s Patagonia. In the new season a number of stories intersect including a young man’s disappearance, a priest’s efforts to save a disgraced family and a retired detective trying to stay active, all beneath the looming shadow of the Catholic Church.
‘THE FRONTEIR’
Prod: Filmo Estudios
Following up on Netflix pick-up “Bala Loca,” a crime drama-thriller “The Frontier,” show-run by David Miranda Hardy, and co-directed by “Bala Loca’s” Gabriel Díaz, delivers a noir-ish take on the conflict between indigenous communities and government in Chile deep South after woman cop Manuela Valencia is dispatched there to investigate a couple’s slaughter in apparent Mapuche ritual sacrifice.
‘MAGNICIDE’
Prod: DDRio Studios, Elipsis Entertainment
Another series based on actual events during Chile’s Pinochet era, this series dramatizes one of the region’s most ambitious and well-executed political assassinations. Using an at-the-time undetectable toxin and under direct orders from Augosto Pinochet himself, assassins used a routine surgical procedure as an opportunity to poison and to eliminate former president Eduardo Frei Montalva, an emblem of democracy in the region and a fierce opponent of the military dictatorship. The series will recount the tale through the brave and unceasing investigation executed by Montalva’s daughter over 36 years.
‘MIGRANTS’
Prod: Hormiga Films, Yagán Films
This police drama features a first generation Chilean police office, the son of Peruvian immigrants, tasked with solving a series of seemingly racially-motivated crimes. It promises a no-holds-barred discussion on immigration and human trafficking in Northern Chile, where thousands of pan-Latin-American immigrants flock to find lucrative copper mining jobs.
‘INNOCENTS’
Prod: Catascope
Inspired by real events but set in 2020, the series turns on a forensic psychologist charged with caring for children and adolescents who have been victims of crimes. Her life takes a u-turn when she meets Jeremiah, a 13 year-old accused of homicide that facing a turning point in his young life. The project is one of three involving Nicolas Acuña, who is lined up to co-direct with Pepa San Martin.
‘INVISIBLE HEROES’
Prod: (Finland), Parox (Chile) for YLE (Finland) and Chilevision (Spain)
An ordinary man with a conscience in extraordinary circumstances, Finnish diplomat Tapani Brotherus generates immediate sympathy as he refuses to give up Chileans who hide in his chalet after Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 coup. But he needs a longer term plan to save their lives, Based on true events, of unsung courage and humanity, and an unlikely but model Europe-Latin America co-production, warmly received at MipTV and now Conecta Fiction, which is opened on June 17.
‘LA JAURIA’
Prod: Fabula, Fremantle
Chile’s banner high-end drama series produced by Fabula and FreMantle as part of a multi-year first-look deal, starring ‘A Fantastic Woman’s’ Daniela Vega, showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“XXY”) and a psychological gender crime thriller set at a posh private Catholic school where a girl goes missing after organizing a take-over in protest at a teacher’s suspected sexual assault of a student.
‘LOGIA, THE FOURTH CARAVEL MYSTERY’
Prod: Rizoma Producciones
“A kind of Latin American ‘Da Vinci Code,’” says producer Sebastian Freund. Based on a bestseller of the same title by Francisco Ortega,, the 8-episode fantasy fiction series pictures American Evangelists attempting to unearth Knights Templar treasure buried somewhere in South America which has the power to destroy the Catholic Church
‘NEGRO, MATERIEL AUTHOR’
Prod: Celosa Films
Based on the astonishing life of Chilean political activist, assassin, kidnapper and prison escapee Ricardo “Negro” Palma Salamanca, the series will chronicle his reluctant assassination of a high-ranking Pinochet officer through to his eventual incarceration, cinematic helicopter-aided prison break, and twenty years of clandestine existence since. Salamanca has given his blessing to the production and its developer Sergio Castro San Martín, which will lean heavily on Salamanca’s autobiographies and a documentary the are working on to be released this October.
‘THE SADDEST GOAL’
Prod: Manufactura de Peliculas
A four-part miniseries record, running parallel to a feature film, of courage and outrage in World Cup soccer, the return match of a 1974 qualifier between Chile and the Soviet Union, played in Chile’s National Stadium, used by Augusto Pinochet torture center. An august cast: Luis Gnecco (“Neruda”) and Larraín male muse Alfredo Castro. López (“Rara”) produces, Sergio Castro San Martín, a director on the Larrains’ “La Jauría,” directs.
‘SILVER BRIDGE’
Prod: Parox
A Latin American narcotics origin story. From Parox, the Chilean makers of “Invisible Heroes,” “Silver Bridge” is a 1950s-set, true-events-inspired drama series tracing the cocaine trade’s origins back to the Huasaffs, a Chilean mob clan. In “Silver Bridge” a young woman medical student falls in love with Amanda Huasaff, the youngest family scion who runs Valparaiso’s most exclusive brothel. Enrique Videla (“Profugos,” “La Jauría”) writes.
‘THE SUSPENDED MOURNING’ (‘UNA HISTORIA NECESARIO’)
Prod: Tridi 3D Films, Escuela de Cine de Chile
Created by Hernán Caffiero, a 2018 Intl. Emmy short series winner. Brief vignettes of desaparecidos under Pinochet: Their disappearance, its impact on loved ones, what happened to them, if known from recent DINA agent confessions. Crafted, and hugely wrenching.
‘TRAUCO’
Invercine & Wood, Machete Films
A cop drama created by Pablo Donoso, Nicolás Maynetto and Osvaldo Muraro which pitched at the Guadalajara TV Pitchbox in February. Taking place on an isolated island, the series turns on a detective who flees, along with his wife, after a traumatic loss. There, he is faced with unbelievable circumstances that feed his past demons, which are grounded in something far more concrete than local myths.
‘VICTORIA’
Prod: Imago, Promocine
Inspired by the memoirs of Belgian engineer Gustave Verniory, “Ten years in Araucanía,” ‘Victoria’ is the late-19th century set story of a trans-continental railroad project stretching across Argentina and Chile. What original seemed an exciting job opportunity in a Wild West atmosphere became all too real when violence, greed and unbridled passions dictated every decision Verniory mades.
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