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Spanish television finds ideas in literature

2021-08-09T16:51:11.259Z


Novels by Almudena Grandes, Eduardo Mendoza and Carmen Laforet are in the process of becoming series


The explosion that Spanish audiovisuals have experienced in recent years has led television production companies to search for ideas to generate content even under the stones.

"The demand has grown so much that creative sources have to be diversified," says Sonia Martínez, editorial director of series at Buendía Estudios.

One of those sources that has proven fundamental in recent times is literature.

The television adaptation of books is not something new.

In fact, it was one of the essential bases when the medium was taking its first steps in the last century.

Spanish series such as

La Regenta, Fortunata and Jacinta, Cañas y Barro

or

Los gozos y las sombra

are proof of this.

But the relevance it has gained in recent years is new.

More information

  • The new life in audio of the Spanish classics

"Just as you have to work on ideas that arise from creative teams, a very powerful source of stories is literature," continues Martínez, one of the most recognized production companies in the current Spanish television industry.

“There are more and more writers who also write thinking about future series.

And, although it may seem incredible, there are books that have not been published and are already optioned [phase prior to the purchase of adaptation rights during which the production company seeks funding and studies the viability of the project].

The link between literature and television is more powerful and I think it is because there is a lot of demand and we need to open the range of creative sources ”, he completes.

Betting on a story that has already hooked the public (reader, in this case) gives producers some security.

In addition, once a novelist has achieved success on television, his subsequent works become objects of desire for production companies.

This was the case of María Dueñas: the great reception of the adaptation of

El tiempo entre costuras

paved the way for another of her novels,

La tempelanza

, to be brought to the small screen as well.

The link between literature and television is more powerful because there is a lot of demand and we need to open the range of creative sources

Sonia Martinez

A report from the GECA consultancy, to which EL PAÍS has had access, makes it possible to measure the dimension that this relationship between literature and television has taken in Spain. The number of television projects underway that adapt books already published exceeded two dozen in June, and since then more have already been announced, such as the one with

Hell in Paradise

, by the writer Clara Sánchez, at its center. Although not all of them materialize, the interest in uniting literature and television is evident. To these projects should be added the ten titles whose production is well advanced and will see the light in the coming months. The report highlights the rise of the miniseries format for these adaptations both in Spain and in the international context, which allows adjusting to the needs of each work.

Among the fictions that are already on the runway to come to light is

Ana Tramel, the game,

a

thriller

that will be seen on TVE and, before that, on Amazon Prime Video with Maribel Verdú as the protagonist and that adapts a novel by Roberto Santiago.

The Heirs of the Earth

is the continuation of

The Cathedral of the Sea

,

both written by Ildefonso Falcones. The sequel has once again been co-produced by Diagonal TV, Atresmedia, Netflix and Televisió de Catalunya, as the television version of the mother story already did. At the San Sebastian Festival

La Fortuna

will live its coming-out

,

international co-production by Movistar +, AMC Networks, MOD Producciones and Beta Film with which Alejandro Amenábar makes his debut in series directing and which is based on the graphic novel

El tesoro del cisne negro,

by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral.

Netflix buys the rights to 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' to make a series

Two of the premieres that the Atresplayer Premium platform has planned for the coming months are based on novels.

The gypsy bride is

part of the bestseller signed under the pseudonym Carmen Mola, with the filmmaker Paco Cabezas as the head of its television version. Another novel with a mystery in between,

The Age of Wrath

, by Nando López, will be the basis of another production by chapters that will also be seen on the Atresmedia payment platform. For its debut in its own production of series, the Filmin platform chose the novel by Carlo Padial

Doctor Portuondo

, whose premiere is scheduled before the end of 2021.

A perfect story, Daughter of the road

and

The girl in the snow

are three of the latest projects that Netflix has announced in Spain, and all three are based on novels.

The first continues the relationship that the platform started with Elísabet Benavent with

Valeria

(which will premiere its second season next Friday).

The second, based on a novel written by Lucía-Asué Mbomío, follows the story of a young woman in search of her roots.

The book on which the third project is based is written by Javier Castillo and was a sales phenomenon during the 2020 confinement. Two other novels by Castillo,

The Day That Sanity

Was

Lost

and its sequel,

The Day That

Was

Lost. love

, are in the process of adaptation with DeAPlaneta and Globomedia.

'The frozen heart', 'The gypsy bride' and 'The snow girl', three of the novels that have television adaptations underway.

Two novels by Almudena Grandes are in the process of becoming a series.

BoomerangTV is preparing the adaptation of

The Frozen Heart,

which traces the recent history of Spain through two families and has sold more than 700,000 copies.

In 2018 DiagonalTV and DeAPlaneta announced the launch of the adaptation of the volume with which the writer won the 2018 National Narrative Award,

Doctor García's Patients

.

The BoomerangTV production company is working on the adaptation of the novel

Divina Lola,

by Cristina Morató, a biography about the dancer, adventurer and courtesan Lola Montes. He also acquired the rights to

The bodies of the red room

and

The bodies of the last times,

by Íñigo Aguas. For its part, Mediaset is working on translating titles written by two journalists from the house to the small screen:

After love,

by Sonsoles Ónega, and

I'm not a monster,

by Carme Chaparro. The rights of the trilogy written by Susana Rodríguez Lezaun

Without return, Debts from the cold

and

I'll see you tonight

They were acquired by Vértice 360, the same company that works on the television version

of Lucía Etxebarria's

Amor, Curiosity, Prozac and Doubts

.

Carmen Laforet, Juan Gómez-Jurado, Eduardo Mendoza, Javier Sierra, Lorenzo Silva, Juan del Val, Henar Álvarez, Paula Fernández González, David Jiménez, Manuel Ríos San Martín and Iñaki Domínguez are other authors whose works are in the process of becoming series .

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-08-09

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