Latin America Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Emiliano Granada Bowing Feb. 15 on Netflix, “Eva Lasting” hit its Top 10 in 14 countries across much of Latin America, scoring a global Top 10 berth, and now prompting the platform to order a second season just days after its release. A high-end Caracol TV production that puts on full display the benefits of streamer backing, the sleek 13-episode show, directed by Mateo Stivelberg and Maria Gamboa, taps into the comforts that Latin American telenovelas have accustomed their audiences to while finding solid and sometimes new narrative ground in its runtime.  Set at a 1976 Bogotá against the background of Colombia’s rampant modernization, the story follows Camilo (Emmanuel Restrepo) and his group of friends in a public boys school whose lives are irreparably changed when Eva (Francisca Estévez) becomes its first female student. Keenly aware of the tropes invoked down the decades by this kind of premise, the showplaces with them while giving color and depth to its characters. Eva rapidly escapes the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ archetype to become a full-fledged character whose actions are the catalyst for the evolution of the main characters. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Latin America is about to get an array of new thematic channels, thanks to a strategic partnership between Canal+ Group’s Thema America and SPI Int’l. SPI Int’l’s popular channels FunBox UHD, FilmBox Arthouse, Gametoon, FightBox, DocuBox, Fast&FunBox, FashionBox, Erox, Eroxxx, and 360TuneBox, will be distributed across the region via Thema America, which will represent and distribute the channels.

With Disney already in the midst of its “one-app” streamlining of Hulu and Disney+ in the U.S., it is also making a similar move in Latin America with Star+.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent BUENOS AIRES — Brazil is beginning to come back as Latin America’s production powerhouse. At Ventana Sur on Monday, representatives of key federal, state and city authorities as well as a leading producer outlined some of the directions the giant would like to take on its return.

Anna Marie de la Fuente “Roma” producer Nicolas Celis’ of Pimienta Films is coming on board as lead producer of “Freeland,” the first English-language pic by “Emily in Paris” director Katina Medina Mora, Variety learned at Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria. To be co-written with Chilean scribe Julio Rojas, creator of podcast sensation “Caso 63” and a co-writer on Pablo Fendrik’s “El Refugio,” the project was put together by producer Nestor Hernández, a former Sony and HBO development exec for Latin America, who attended the San Sebastian Film Festival in September to present the project.

Refresh for latest…: There’s a lot to unpack this weekend at the international box office, including a flying start for Warner Bros/New Line’s The Nun II, Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan continuing to outdo himself and a major milestone afoot for Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Meanwhile, Barbie has danced past $1.4B worldwide.

Refresh for latest…: Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is off to a disappointing start with a $130M global opening. Of that, $70M is from 52 international box office markets as the the fifth installment in the beloved 42-year-old franchise came in below projections.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent CANNES —  Belinda, one of Mexico’s biggest popstars and a star of Netflix hit “Welcome to Eden,” is attached to headline “The Red Diamond,” the latest project from Erik Barmack’s L.A. and Mexico City-based Wild Sheep Content. One of the fastest-growing of production companies in international markets, Wild Sheep has a production alliance with The Mediapro Studio.  “The Red Diamond” is also set up at Mexico City’s Wild Sheep Content Latin America, headed by producer Jimena Rodríguez who produced “3 Idiots,” the second highest-grossing Mexican movie of 2017. Rodríguez was instrumental in helping bringing Belinda to the project.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Buenos Aires-based Meikincine has swooped on international sales rights to “The Extortion,” the biggest Argentine box office hit to date of 2023, in a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America.  “The Extortion” is backed by a pedigreed combo of Particular Crowd, part of Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America, Oscar winner Juan José Campanella’s 100 Bars, “Argentina, 1985” producer Infinity Hill and producer-service company Cimarrón Cine. Headlined by Guillermo Francella, memorable in Campanella’s Academy Award winning “The Secret in Their Eyes” and star of Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan,” “The Extortion” turns on Alejandro, a pilot with a secret. Blackmailed by sinister intelligence service agents, he is plunged into a world of intrigue and corruption from which he will battle to escape alive. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Tomás Yankelevich, EVP and chief content officer of general entertainment for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), has opted to leave the company by the end of June to “pursue new professional endeavors.” Fernando Medin, president of WBD Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, has tapped industry vet Mariano Cesar to replace him. Cesar, who joined the pay TV industry some 30 years ago, was at the helm of such renowned brands as Uniseries, Retro, I.Sat, Space, TNT, TNT Series and Warner Channel. He was named head of programming and strategic content at HBO Max when it launched in 2021, adding the HBO channel portfolio and, more recently, Discovery+ to his duties.

Lise Pedersen Lucrecia Martel, whose films include “La Ciénaga,” “The Holy Girl” and “The Headless Woman,” has been celebrated as guest of honor at the 54th edition of international documentary film festival Visions du Réel, where organizers had to switch to a larger venue to accommodate the large, enthusiastic audience attending her masterclass. During the three-hour event on Tuesday, the acclaimed Argentinian filmmaker and leading figure of the New Argentine Cinema delved into her body of work and spoke about her upcoming hybrid project, “Chocobar,” her first foray into feature-length non-fiction. “I am learning as I’m doing, that’s why it’s taking so long,” she quipped, with characteristic self-deprecation. “I am currently on version four of the edit,” she explained of her doc, which focuses on the real-life murder of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar. The film explores the subject of land ownership and indigenous struggles in Latin America, asking what has changed over the past five centuries.

Series Mania on March 21 just after a Spanish series, “Wrong Side of the Tracks” from Mediaset España and Alea Media, had scored 149.6 million watching hours in three weeks on Netflix for Seasons 1 and 2.  That platform connection and power of Spanish series threaded most of the series and much of the commentary at Tuesday’s Next from Spain, supported by Audiiovisual from Spain.  At least in terms of titles now ready to hit the market, there’s little sign as yet of platform pullback in Spain. Rather, it remains a ground zero in the streamer wars.

Berlinale Series Market kicks off Monday as Spanish series “The Snow Girl,” a missing girl suspense thriller produced by Spain’s Atípica Films, has attracted huge heat for Netflix, punching 101.7 million hours watched in its first three weeks. Doing so, it ranked as the streamer’s No. 1 non-English show in the world over Jan. 30 – Feb. 5.  In all, Spain has more shows and movies in Netflix’s all time non-English Top 10s than any other country in the world, seven to France’s two, for example.  Spain, it could be argued, has cracked online. But its drama series industry wants to ring more options. 

production company Campanario and the National Hispanic Media Coalition asked 1,000 US Latinos and 1,000 non-Latinos about their thoughts on diversity on television. Three in five respondents still think there are not enough Latino actors and actresses on-screen.

Rafael Caro Quintero, whose role in the murder and torture of a US anti-narcotics agent in 1985 was profiled in the Netflix drama series Narcos: Mexico, has been captured by a joint law task force.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Underscoring a push into more ambitious productions in Latin America, Star Plus, The Walt Disney Company’s year-old general entertainment and sports streaming service in the region, presented an early banner production, “Santa Evita,” at Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in a gala screening on June 22.Attendees of the Toledo, Spain-based forum got an exclusive preview of the pilot episode to the seven-part limited series, which is set to bow July 26 on Star Plus Latin America, Hulu in the U.S. and Disney’s Star label in the rest of the world.“Santa Evita” anticipates more “true life fiction” shows that Star Plus is developing, based on larger-than-life figures in Latin America’s culture and history.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentGuadalajara’s Agavia Studios, the Film Commission of the State of Jalisco and market Ventana Sur’s Blood Window are launching Oscura Tinta, a screenplay competition for fantasy/horror features carrying a $25,000 cash prize.Agavia will give the award in exchange for copyright to the work. Agavia will produce the winning screenplay, moving into production this year 2022, CEO Gustavo Cornillón told Variety at Cannes.The winner will be chosen by a panel of industry figures and genre specialists.Launched by Blood Window, Ventana Sur’s genre platform, the call for applications runs June 1-Aug.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American rights and other territories to “All The People I’ll Never Be,” a film from writer and director Davy Chou that is playing in the Un Certain Regard section on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival. SPC is also planning on re-titling the movie in English, “Return to Seoul,” which is the translation of its actual title in French. In addition to North America, the distributor also acquired rights to the film in Latin America, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.“All The People I’ll Never Be” is the story of a 25-year-old woman who, on an impulse, returns to South Korea for the first time where she was born before being adopted and raised in France.

The International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations (FIAPF) and Women in Animation (WIA) have set the six delegations selected for Stories x Women, a program aimed at increasing global diversity of voices in animation.

Naman Ramachandran Banijay Rights, the global distribution arm of Banijay, has revealed the first international adaptation of hit U.K. format “Starstruck,” with a deal confirmed in South America.The show launched earlier this year to a consolidated 4.7 million viewers on U.K. broadcaster ITV and streamer ITV Hub and was re-commissioned for a second series.

Conecta Fiction, Spain’s still expanding Europe-Latin American TV Forum, revealed the finalists for five of its six pitching categories at an opening online session of its 2021 4th edition.Running June 28-3o, the online Conecta Fiction will be followed by a hybrid edition over Sept.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn a key hire, WarnerMedia Latin America has appointed Mônica Albuquerque to head up the artistic talents area in general entertainment for Latin America, working alongside the general entertainment team led by company Chief Content Officer Tomás Yankelevich.At WarnerMedia Latin America, Albuquerque will focus on leading the search, hiring and management of actors, directors and writers for WarnerMedia Latin America fiction and non-fiction

Anna Marie de la Fuente Particular Crowd, the fledgling U.S.-based film division from WarnerMedia’s Turner Latin America, has nabbed all Latin American rights to Argentine filmmaker Marcos Carnevale’s latest film, the dramedy “El Cuartito.”Shot and produced entirely in Puerto Rico, “El Cuartito” refers to the security screening room that five Latinos are confined in when they run afoul of U.S. immigration authorities at Puerto Rico’s San Juan airport.

Jamie Lang In today’s Global Bulletin, WarnerMedia Latin America makes several leadership team changes; HBO Europe announces new true-crime docuseries “Pray, Obey, Kill”; Amazon Prime Video picks up “I Care a Lot” in several key territories; Piece of Magic hires Charlie Kemball as head of acquisitions and business development; San Sebastián opens the call for key sections; and “Mully” will stream free globally this Valentine’s Day.WarnerMedia Latin America chief content officer Tomás

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentWarnerMedia’s Turner Latin America, one of Latin America’s biggest pay TV operators, has struck an exclusive distribution alliance with Mexico-based Cinépolis, one of the biggest cinema theater chains in the world.The partnership, announced Tuesday, will see Cinépolis release eight to 10 movies in the second half of 2020 sourced from Particular Crowd, Turner’s new TNT Original production-acquisition house.

AT&T's WarnerMedia unit on Wednesday promoted Whit Richardson to the role of president, WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks, Latin America, effective Aug. 1.

In this week’s International TV Newswire pay TV struggling despite record audiences, animated content stays hot as families scramble to keep kids entertained, “Casa de Papel” Season 4 races out of the gates, ZDF shops two new historical documentaries, Latin America sees platform launches and announcements, Globo boasts record audiences and AMC, NOS team on a new Portuguese cooking program.

Wild Bunch TV-sold “Albatros,” Turner Latin America’s banner title “Amarres” and REInvent Studios’ globe-trotting “Peacemaker” will feature at a 54 series-strong Buyers Showcase, which launches today March 25 as a backbone of Series Mania’s online Digital Forum, Europe’s first big festival experiment in a virtual marketplace.

Amid continuing cord-cutting and a coronavirus pandemic changing TV viewing habits, AT&T's streaming service DirecTV GO on Tuesday launched in Mexico. "We have worked for several months on this project.

Turner Latin America’s new English-language film label Particular Crowd has kicked off its partnership with Canadian shingles Breakthrough Entertainment and Black Fawn Films with horror-comedy “Vicious Fun,” now in post.

MIAMI — Particular Crowd, the big new film banner of Warner Media’s Turner Latin America, and MarVista Entertainment, one of the world’s biggest and ambitious of independent entertainment studios, have announced a multi-year production slate deal.

MIAMI — In a big, bold affirmation of the value of movies in a new TV world, WarnerMedia’s Turner Latin America, one of Latin America’s biggest pay TV operators, is launching Particular Crowd,  a film production-acquisition company with a 90 English-language movie slate for 2020.

Latin TV personality Ana María Polo and Chile’s Forastero, producer of the Golden Globe-nominated film “The Maid,” are teaming to develop and produce a feature based on her renowned Telemundo show “Caso Cerrado.”

MADRID  — Mexico is a magnet. Netflix produces near twice as many originals there (40) as in France (23) or Germany (23), according to Ampere Analysis. Among Latin America’s biggest cable powers with a 2019 24% audience share in Latin America, and five of its top 10 channels , not so long ago Turner Latin America hardly produced Mexican series.