Crime Thriller ‘Negotiator’ Gets International Trailer from Fremantle, Spiral, Boutique Filmes (EXCLUSIVE)
TOLEDO, Spain — Global producer-distributor Fremantle has dropped an international trailer for “Negotiator,” a sleek, slick and chic eight-part São Paulo crime thriller produced by two prominent players on the Latino and Latin-American TV scene – Miami-based Spiral International and Brazil’s Boutique Filmes.
Acquiring world rights outside Latin America and Portugal, Fremantle will use Conecta Fiction in Toledo, Spain to introduce “Negotiator,” which underscores building market trends coursing through the international TV scene.
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The busy trailer begins with a desperate kidnapper bursting through big church doors, revolver in hand pointing to a victim’s head. “I’m going to kill him,” he shouts hysterically.
Cut in counter-shot to a close up of the late-‘30s granite featured face of Captain Gabriel Menck (Malvino Salvador), head of negotiations for GATE, a special police unit charged with resolving crisis situations across Brazil’s São Paulo. “Nobody dies today,” Menck states categorically.
“I understand your suffering,” Menck tells the kidnapper. He should. Menck is back early from leave of absence from GATE having lost his wife in a car accident which internal affairs is treating as homicide – with Menck himself as the prime suspect.
Having established Season 1’s overriding narrative arc, the trailer plunges into a medley of missions “I’m in control,” Menck shouts to his trigger-happy sniper team, ready to drop the kidnapper.
That raises a large question: Once more facing fall-out from bungled heists, abductions, suicide bids and terrorist threats and tending a young son who suffers post-traumatic stress disorder after his mother’s death, is Menck in control of himself? Or was he the night his wife died?
“Inspired by real events, ‘Negotiator’ is a slick, high-stakes police thriller set in the vibrant city of São Paulo, said Jens Richter, CEO commercial and international at Fremantle.
“We’ve no doubt viewers will be hooked by its rich episodic storylines and stunning visual quality, and couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Spiral International and Boutique Filmes to help take this impressive series to international audiences,” Richter added.
Spiral International was behind “Falco,” Amazon Latin America’s second TV series, which won an International Emmy and sold to Telemundo in the U.S. and Turner/TNT in Latin America. Another Spiral series, serial killer thriller “Toda la Sangre,” created by Spiral CEO Zasha Robles, was one of four first international originals announced by Starzplay,. It was co-produced by Fremantle, which handled international distribution.
Based in São Paulo, Boutique Filmes, run by Thiago and Gustavo Mello and Eduardo Piagge, changed TV history when futuristic social allegory “3%,” Netflix’s second fully foreign-language original series, ran up the vast majority of its viewers outside Brazil, some U.S. viewers who caught it dubbed thinking they were were watching an American series.With it, Netflix discovered a potential huge audience for foreign-laaguage TV.
Crime is still by far the No. 1 consumed drama genre, Richter recognized.
Yet, despite much commented cancellations and postponements of titles at global streaming platforms, content spend still stands at near record levels, plateauing at around $250 billion, according to an Ampere Analysis study presented Tuesday at Conecta Fiction.
So what sets “Negotiator” apart? One clear calling card is the “visually rich world of São Paulo,” said Richter.
The trailer’s first shot, for instance, is of a Sao Paulo church, with a blue Alpine spire, backed by a thicket of white concrete high-rise apartment blocks; a drone take hurtles over trees in a suburban part of the city; a third set-up, just glimpsed, captures a young woman standing on the edge of the roof of building, high above many other high-rises nearby.
Episodes’ split screen opening credits crawl against shots of Sao Paulo’s two most iconic vistas, pulling back down the Paulista Avenue with its glittering array of skyscrapers; and catching the Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge against a brooding sky.
This is a series which wears its location on its sleeve.
“One of the main objectives is to make sure that we understand where we are on the series. The city of Sao Paulo is definitely one of our main characters and places the series directly in Brazil,” said Robles.
“Negotiator” is also episodic TV, which bids fair to make a comeback.
“There’s a big conversation about dropping all episodes at once. The binging experience Netflix created is wonderful,” said Richter.
“From an economic perspective, however, binging passes over the opportunity of creating appointment TV, stretching a viewer’s experience over a couple of weeks or months. I think we’re going to see more episodic storytelling, a little bit more on on demand platforms,” he added.
The series also adds to Fremantle’s growing slate of more mainstream plays.
“The market is moving a little bit more mainstream, towards a little bit more escapism with viewers asking to be taken away from this world and get really nicely entertained. ‘Negotiator’ ticks all the boxes,” said Richter.
“Negotiator” “belongs to a lighter breed of episodic series that allows for the audience to commit to 45 minutes of entertainment without really feeling the heaviness of drama,” said Robles.
Its noir vibes are knit by top-notch cinematography. Editing is quickfire, the camera constantly fluid, set ups varied, and sometimes highly ambitious, such as in Ep. 2 when the camera pulls back from a GATE unit entering a building at street level to spiral up in a couple of seconds to the building’s roof, unveiling São Paulo behind.
Such cinematography can be put down to Brazil. Executive produced by Robles and Gustavo Mello, “Negotiator” is created by Mello, Thomas Stavros (“One Against All”) and Thiago Faelli (“Summer Heat”), and directed by Isabel Valiante, whose credits include HBO series “Psi” and Boutique’s stylish “3%” follow-up, “Omnisicient.”
Stavros, Gabriela Giffoni (“Impuros”), José Guertzenstein (”One Against All”) and Ronaldo Lasmar serve as episode writers.
“Negotiator” was one of three titles which won funding from a new cash rebate inaugurated by Spcine, São Paulo’s film commission.
“Boutique and the rebate really allowed us to bring a visual style and production values to the screen that are rare in series from the Brazilian independent business,” said Robles.
“Negotiator” is Fremantle’s first scripted series from Brazil. More might well come fairly shortly.
On the eve of the Cannes Festival, Joelma Gonzaga, Brazilian audiovisual secretary, confirmed to Variety that Brazilian President’s Lula Inácio Lula da Silva’s new government, which took office on Jan. 1, was plowing just under $1 billion into the country’s audiovisual sector in 2023.
High production values are pretty much a necessity to break through the clutter of content worldwide. Brazil, South America’s fast emerging powerhouse, looks set to have the wherewithal to fund them.
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