Larrains’ Fabula Preps ‘Superman’s Bodyguards,’ on Christopher Reeve’s Chile Trip Under Pinochet’s Dictatorship (EXCLUSIVE)

Emiliano De Pablos
·3 min read
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The Larraín brothers’ indie company Fábula, producer of Oscar winning “A Fantastic Woman,” is preparing tragi-comic docudrama “Los guardaespaldas de Superman” (“Superman’s Bodyguards”).

The four-episode, half-hour crime-adventure series, directed by Sebastián Radic (“Instrucciones para Mi Funeral”) and scripted by Rodrigo Bastidas and Rodrigo Muñoz, focuses on a trip Christopher Reeve’s made to Chile in 1987, under Pinochet’s dictatorship, to save the lives of 78 people under death threat.

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“Superman’s Bodyguards” is one of the five projects selected to form part of Pitch Docudrama, a showcase at Conecta Fiction 2023 edition, which takes place June 26-29 in Toledo, the capital of Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha, just south of Madrid.

At Toledo, Fabula execs will be looking for co-production partners to strengthen the possiblility of shooting outside Chile. Also, they will seek to get the word out to the market that Fabula is producing documentary series content.

“The tragicomedy appeals to universal values, based on a story that naturally connects Chile and the U.S. but also involves characters from Europe. Therefore, the mini-series has potential for co-production with Spain, U.K., as well as the U.S,” Fabul series creative director Daniel Castell noted.

In 1987, Christopher Reeve, one of the most important actors of his generation, travels without superpowers to the heart of the cruellest of Latin American dictatorships, to help 78 artists under death threat from from an extreme right faction.

The pro-dictatorship media mocked Superman’s attempt to save them, but the actor and those threatened, issue a desperate and in some ways delirious appeal which echoes around the world, puts Chile front and center in the international focus, and perhaps helps to open the doors to democracy.

“This documentary series aims to portray an epic and bright achievement,” director Sebastián Radic argued.

“We want to shed light on a very dark part of Chile’s history, to find ourselves again through tragicomedy and put culture, its heroes and heroines, in the place they deserve, with an epic universal story that seeks to reach all audiences around the planet where, with Superman’s help, a struggle to recover freedom was conceived. An unprecedented story,” he added.

“We are in the process of selling the project. We have a bible and a teaser, as well as very solid pre-research, which we will complement with definitive research, with the help of a team of journalists specialized in that period,” Castell commented.

The docudrama series is scheduled for delivery late 2024/early 2025.

With offices in the U.S., Mexico and Chile, Fabula, created almost two decades ago by brothers Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín, won in 2018 an Academy Award for the film “A Fantastic Woman,” by Sebastián Lelio.

Fabula’s series area, launched in 2015, has so far developed and produced 13 projects for platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+, Lionsgate+, ViX, HBO Max and Pantaya/Starz, partnered on many series by Fremantle, with which its signed in 2019 a first-look deal to develop a slate of original English and Spanish-language dramas, kicking off with “La Jauría,” which the partners had already out into production. Fremantle distribute these projects worldwide.

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