Spain’s Buendía Estudios Vizcaya to Adapt ‘Angela Black,’ With Atresmedia TV (EXCLUSIVE)

John Hopewell
·3 min read
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TOLEDO, Spain — Adding to its bullish line-up of primetime dramas, Spain’s Buendía Estudios Vizcaya is set to adapt “Angela Black,” with Atresmedia TV, the latter’s second ITV drama makeover from “The Missing” creators, Harry and Jack Williams, after the Spanish commercial broadcaster’s reversion of “Liar.”

Currently casting and set to go into production this fall in Bizkaia’s Bilbao, “Angela,” as the Spanish redo is known, is produced by Buendía Estudios Vizcaya with the participation of Atresmedia TV.

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An original idea of the Williams’ Two Brothers Pictures, “Angela Black’s” international distribution is handled by All3Media International, which struck the adaptation deal.

Buendía Estudios is behind “Veneno,” “Cardo” and “The Cook of Castamar.” “Angela” is directed by Norberto López Amado, who has helmed episodes on some of the biggest hits on Spanish TV in the last 10 years, such as “The Time in Between” and “El Príncipe” as well as two episodes of “Liar.”

In now well-established windowing, “Angela” will air first on Atresplayer Premium, Atresmedia’s high-profile fremium VOD service, before broadcasting on Antena 3, Atresmedia’s flagship free-to-air channel.

Starring “Downton Abbey’s” “Joanne Froggatt, “Angela Black” is a stark tale of domestic abuse wrapped in a thriller format, Its Spanish makeover joins an Atresmedia lineup of productions whose bet on Spanish fiction is one of its defining characteristics.

“We are very happy with this new project because its scripts are very good indeed and we’re putting together a top-notch cast. ‘Angela Black’ was very successful and fits very well the kind of fiction which we’re looking for when we’re ask what foreign series are the most interesting to adapt,” said Montse García, director of fiction at Atresmedia TV.

“With it, we will follow the path of ‘Mentiras,’ an adaptation of ‘Liar,’ which worked very well with audiences and critics,” she added.

Of upcoming titles, “La pasión turca,” starring Maggie Civantos (“Locked Up”) and Ilker Kaleli has wrapped its shoot, ‘Beguinas,” with Yon González and Amaia Aberasturi, is shooting. In the upcoming months, Atresmedia will bow “Entretierras,” with Megan Montaner, and a Spanish reversion of Israel’s “Kvodo,” whose hit U.S. makeover starred Bryan Cranston.

“Atresmedia is the biggest Spanish series factory. Nobody’s producing as much as we do. Our bet on Spanish fiction is huge and something we’re very proud of,” said García.

“With the so many series that we prepare, we look to offer spectators a quality and varied catalog where they’ll find different issues and styles. We always bet on big stories and characters which captivate the public, whether original ideas or adaptations.”

Atresmedia TV title “Alba,” a remake of Turkey’s “Fatmagül,” made No.1 on Netflix’s global non-English TV rankings; “The Cook of Castamar” also played well on Netflix.

“On all our productions, we aim for our identity to be recognisable, that local elements clearly mark our series apart because we’ve seen that they work well in the Spanish market and abroad. “Alba,” “Mentiras,” and “Heridas,” an adaptation of “Mother,” are good examples of how we manage to adapt a story and international characters to our culture and ways of relating. This is the challenge we’re setting ourselves, with Buendía Estudios, on the adaptation of ‘Angela Black,’” García concluded.

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