MipTV: Secuoya, Focus, Dramedy Team To Develop ‘The Survivors’ (EXCLUSIVE)
BARCELONA– Spain’s Secuoya Group, Focus Group and Scenic Rights are developing historic thriller “The Survivors” a TV series inspired by the true story of the survivors from Che Guevara’s guerrilla fighting force in Bolivia, and their perilous escape from the CIA and the Bolivian army after Che Guevara’s arrest and execution on Oct. 8, 1967.
U.S. producer and writer Noah Evslin has boarded the project as the series’ showrunner. Evslin has served as co-producer on ABC shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away with Murder.” He penned episodes of “Colony” and “Private Practice” and also worked as a history professor at the University of Hawai.
Series recreates the escape of the six survivors (three from Cuba, the rest from aBolivia) who formed part of the guerrilla force that revolutionary hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara formed in Bolivia.
Cubans Dariel Alarcón, Leonardo Tamayo and Harry Villegas and Bolivia’s David Adriazola, Inti Peredo and Julio Méndez Korne embarked upon an epic flight which lasted months, from Bolivia’s jungle, cities and hamlets to Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti, Singapore, Paris, Prague and Mosco Five of them eventually reached Fidel Castro’s Havana.
A large TV production, services and broadcast group, Secuoya Group has operations in Spain, Colombia, Chile, Peru. It launched a new free-to-air channel –Ten– in Spain a year ago. Secuoya’s two main subsidiary are Secuoya Contenidos and docu-focused New Atlantis.
In its highest-profile international venture, Secuoya has teamed with Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fábula to launch Chile-based Fabula TV.
The screenplay for Survivors is based on research and several books whose rights have been acquired by Spain’s Scenic Rights, according to Sydney Borjas, Scenic Rights Managing Director, who added its producers intended to make three seasons of ten episodes each.
Prague-based TV production outfit Dramedy Productions (“The First Republic”) is also involved as co-producer.
Scenic Rights is a talent agency company also handles IPs, which forms a subsidiary of the Focus Group, a leading Barcelona and Madrid-based sectoral leader producing works for the stage and also films and TV formats based on prestigious dramatic and literary pieces.
Cuban Lawyer and producer Lía Rodríguez (Pavel Giroud’s “The Companion”) will be one of the scriptwriters of “Survivors.” Evslin is represented by Chris Sablan at literary agency Original Artists and Dave Brown at Echo Lake Entertainment.
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