Spain’s Mediacrest and Chile’s Maria Wood Productions Team for Mars-Set Dystopian Series, ’Humanity’ (EXCLUSIVE)
In its continued bid to explore new fiction content, Spain’s Mediacrest has joined forces with Chilean shingle Maria Wood Prods. to co-produce sci-fi series, “Humanity.”
This is the fledgling three-year-old company’s first collaboration with a Chilean producer and also its first with a Latin American company.
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To be presented at Series Mania, the Mars-based series could not be more timely given the growing interest in the Red Planet by space exploration companies led by NASA and billionaires Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.
In July, Branson and Bezos flew to the edge of space nine days apart to much fanfare – and some trepidation – as part of their ambition to ferry passengers to space.
Created by Paula Sánchez, Jorge Hernández and Sergio Cámara from Mediacrest’s fiction department, led by Alberto Macías, “Humanity” is set in the not-so-distant future following the explosion of planet Earth – an apocalyptic scenario that doesn’t seem now so far-fetched given current climate change disasters.
It’s the year 2050 and ten astronauts have recently arrived on Mars with an impossible mission: To save mankind from extinction. As Macías described “Humanity” to Variety: “10 characters are abandoned on the inhospitable planet of Mars without family, without friends, without resources. They are badly matched, alone in the universe, and the only thing left of the human species. On them falls a mission for which they have never been trained: to secure the survival of the species. But does this species, capable of destroying the planet that hosts them, deserve to survive?”
“That’s what we want to explore in the series: the misery and greatness of the human being in a kind of experiment on a humanity scale. ‘Humanity’ is a thriller where suspense builds up when the survival of the individual clashes with that of the group,” he continued.
Based in Madrid and Barcelona, Mediacrest is also presenting two other projects at Series Mania: “Life,” in co-production with White Lion Films and Troisième Œil, part of the Mediawan Group, a medical thriller inspired by the real life, record-breaking achievement of 45 transplants performed in less than 24 hours; and “Little Bucharest,” a quirky, teenage vampire horror comedy, which launches its teaser at Series Mania. “Life” was selected as a finalist in the international competition at Pamplona-based forum, Conecta Fiction.
Maria Wood Prods., was founded by producer and documentary filmmaker María Elena Wood with the aim to produce high-end television series that address relevant cultural and social themes.
She has executive produced “Dignity,” which played Canneseries in 2020, “Mary & Mike,” selected for the 2018 Berlinale Series Market; “Ramona,” a FIPA d’Or 2017 winner for best drama series, and the upcoming “News of a Kidnapping,” currently in post.
Credit: Mediacrest / Maria Wood Productions
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