KondZilla, LB, Behind Netflix Brazilian Smash Hit ‘Sintonia,’ Scale Up for Ambitious New Series Slate (EXCLUSIVE)
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The creators of Netflix’s “Sintonia,” one of South America’s biggest streaming show hits, KondZilla and LB Entertainment (formerly Losbragas), are re-teaming to co-produce a slate of series.
Ending speculation on what is next for KondZilla, a YouTube phenomenon and LB, both based out of São Paulo, the three series – “After the End,” “A Close Call” and “South” – look set to broaden the partners’ compass from “Sintonia,” the coming of age story of three friends set against the crime and vibrant culture of São Paulo outskirts life, its gangs, thriving music scene, religion and sense of community.
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The new series come in at such themes from novel angles, changing the setting or expanding the canvas of favela culture to take in a penitentiary-set drama and a string of major metropoli in the Southern Hemisphere.
The project announcement comes just after Konrad Dantas – KondZilla – delivered a keynote at this week’s Rio2C, Latin America’s biggest creativity conference, a sign of how seriously Brazil’s creative community takes him.
They should, with a YouTube channel who 66.5 million subscribers, he speaks for a large proportion of Brazilians who are young and disenfranchised but whose culture and community values are winning ever greater notice and respect. The English subtitles on his channels’ music videos, such as the version of the recent “Salve a Favela” on his channel, suggests his audience reaches way beyond Brazil.
The plot-lines:
“After the End” (series, Series, 8 x 45’)
A crime lord whose face no one knows, is sent down by law. Incarcerated in a São Paulo penitentiary, he fights to keep control over his business outside, respect in jail and anonymity – just as his tries to thwart a succession battle between family members and close associates, all wanting his position.
“A Close Call” (limited series, 6 x 45’)
Twin brothers Pedro and Gabriel, raised by a single mom, with the same education and opportunities. One has embraced them, overcoming social barriers, the other has never been able to ignore them. He joins other marginalised characters from the outskirts. “Pedro and Gabriel are identical. If so close, why so different?” the synopsis asks.
“South” (series, 8 x 30′)
São Paulo, Luanda, Cape Town, Jakarta, Bogota share a close identity, shaped by the same experiences of young individuals creating pop culture in its slums and outskirts, the series notes.“‘South’ is about the themes, rhythms and colors that connect them – and the love story of a young couple making a trip through these cities while learning how to commit to each other.”
“They are all narratives about the clash between mainstream culture and the emerging values from the outskirts of society,” said Braga, creator of LB’s pioneering Netflix sitcom “Samantha!”
Overall, projects are created by Konrad Dantas with Felipe Braga. Rita Moraes serves as executive producer on them.
All series are in development. Broadly, LB will lead and finance all development of IP targeting young audiences, KondZilla will lead production, but roles will evolve.
“The idea is to evolve the partnership between both companies – already so successful – advancing the synergy between the companies’ teams,” said Moraes, producer of “Samantha” and executive producer on “Lov3.”
“The overall concept of the partnership – beyond creative development – is the growth of both LB and Kondzilla into more multifaceted players. Exchanging expertise, insights, networks, and most importantly, developing very diverse, multi talent teams,” she added.
“Our intention is to explore this slate with multiple television and streaming partners, rather than looking for an overall deal with any single player,” Braga said.
Created by KondZilla, Guilherme Quintella, Moraes and Braga, and executive produced by LB’s Braga and Moraes, “Sintonia” will shortly premiere its fourth season on Netflix, making it the longest-running Netflix show from South America. Gullane has taken on production from Season 2 onwards, as LB has started focusing more on original IP development.
“Sintonia” turns on three childhood Sao Paulo favela friends, Nando, Doni and Rita, who take different paths in their late teens, drawn by the sway of the drug trade, funk and religion respectively. Their bedrock friendship holds strong, however. Netflix has just dropped a trailer for Season 4 whose dramatic nature does not require any knowledge of Portuguese to comprehend. “Sintonia” Season 3 bowed at No. 3 on the Netflix Global Non-English Top 10 suggesting a growing international interest in the series.
Variety talked to Dantas and Moraes about the new series and their ambitions, which takes in not only expansion abroad but ownership of IP, a building bone of contention in Latin America.
Felipe [Braga] tells me, Kond, that you will bring your “unique contemporary approach to talent and visual creation” to the series. Could you go into brief detail about what this could mean?
Dantas: I try to develop from my experiences as someone who grew up in a poor neighborhood, and to bring the most of what I lived and saw to the table. That’s the big difference. Not many people who came from the same background I did get the opportunity to make their mark on art, or get the opportunity to contribute their beliefs to a piece of art. A lot of people who grew up like me work as crew members, but don’t necessarily get to lead, suggest, or direct artistically, with their truth. I strive to respect, to bring more legitimacy, more authenticity. So that the audience can feel that sense of belonging when they engage with the content, people are going to see themselves on screen.
In general, I sense that the world and yourselves have moved on somewhat from when you first created “Sintonia”….
Dantas: We know what the hood is interested in; we’ve been creating this type of entertainment content for the inner cities for over 15 years now, in many other formats; the difference is that we brought that language we applied every day in shorter, quicker, cheaper products to bigger projects, with larger budgets.
Moraes: The greatest influence “Sintonia “will have in the new series’ is the successful creative synergy it enabled between Konrad, Rita and Felipe. But we are surely aware of how well the audience took the venture into a world almost unknown back then. It’s been half a decade since we first signed the series and we are aware that some of the issues we wanted to approach back in Season 1 are now more palpable. We are willing to take them further.
Can you also say that the series are a step-up in scale and production ambitions?
Dantas: Yes. I believe that our next mission is to have the same recognition, not only intellectual, but also patrimonial, as the one the music business has for its artists, record producers and publishers who handle the rights for the works. It’s not just the investor who gets to enjoy the profits, it’s everyone who contributed to the project; that doesn’t happen here anymore. I know that deals like this happen in Europe, for example, with more transparent terms and more win-win agreements; but here, in Latin America and the U.S., it’s all buyouts —something that for us (in the music business), makes no sense. Naturally, the results of our creations allow us to fight for a producing seat, and, as producers, we can defend our rights here in our territory, because we know how important Brazil is for the platforms. We want to bring the revenue share model we see in music to audiovisual media, that’s what’s important .With all the respect in the world, I know that it’s the channel who’s taking a gamble on the investment, but the people who are invested in the development, they are the creators. We want to be a part of the monetary value our work creates.
Moraes: Surely. We want to reach a wider audience, here and abroad. That does not necessarily mean bigger budgets, but rather a more shrewd approach to stories that are universal without losing its local DNA.
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