Telefe and Telefilms’ new production company The Magic Eye are teaming up to co-produce a bio-series about Roberto Sanchez, otherwise known as Sandro, the Elvis of Argentina.
Deal was announced at the LA Screenings. Sanchez was known as the precursor of national rock, having been the first to introduce this genre in Argentina with Spanish-language cover versions of iconic rock songs.
“Sandro de America” will begin each episode with a song that reps or illustrates a stage in Sandro’s tumultuous life and career. Production kicks off in the next few weeks with a target air date for 2017 on Telefe. Telefe and Telefilm will jointly handle international distribution.
The bio-series genre is a growing trend among Latin American broadcasters with Sony Pictures Television (SPT) leading the pack. SPT Latin America is currently developing its most ambitious bio-series to date with “El Comandante,” starring Colombia’s Andres Parra as Venezuela’s controversial late president Hugo Chavez.
Airing on Colombia’s RCN TV, SPT’s “The Rose Seller,” based on the life of Colombian rose seller Lady Maria Tabares who was the subject of the 1998 Palme D’Or nommed pic by Victor Gaviria when she was just 13, was Colombia’s most-watched scripted series last year.
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Caracol TV’s 2012 mega bio-series “Pablo Escobar, El Patron del Mal,” was a massive hit for the Colombian network.
Bio-teleseries “Blue Demon,” a co-production between SPT and Mexico’s Televisa about the iconic Lucha Libre wrestler Alejandro Munoz Moreno, is expected to debut this year.
The bio-series format is ostensibly a response to viewers’ increasingly short attention span. With fewer episodes, it is stripped Monday to Friday like a telenovela but with the edge of a U.S. drama.
