Mexico City-based Endemol Shine Boomdog, a unit of Banijay Americas, has snagged the rights to Carlos Fuentes’ vampire novel “Vlad” and is developing a series based on the bestseller with lauded showrunner J.M. Cravioto (“El Chapo,” “Diablero”) attached as both showrunner and executive producer.
Jerry Rodriguez, Endemol Shine Boomdog’s senior VP and head of scripted content, and Clara Machado (“The Followers”) are developing the project for Endemol Shine Boomdog.
Carl Zitelmen (“No Abras la Puerta”) is adapting Fuentes’ novel for television.
Story follows the mythical vampire who arrives in Mexico City in search of the soul of his beloved Mina, reincarnated as a Mexican woman. To his consternation, Vlad finds her inhabiting a progressive liberal who is not impressed at all by him. Having lost touch with the modern world, the 600-year-old predator struggles with panic attacks and blackout episodes, while he satiates his cravings for fresh blood.
“Vlad offers us the opportunity to reimagine a classic horror story and transform it into a modern thriller. It’s a love story, a high-concept drama that shows us both the savage and the vulnerable side of an immortal being,” said Rodriguez, adding: “We are always seeking out, adapting and creating interesting stories that navigate between genres with ease, stories that can take us from terror to tenderness, from tears to laughter and connect with different audiences in many levels and ‘Vlad’ is a great example of this kind of story.”
“We are looking at ‘Vlad’ as a multi-season series; It’s a character-driven show with complex characters that everyone can relate to,” Rodriguez told Variety. “The vampire himself is going to face a lot of conflicts that are part of the human condition nowadays,” he said, adding that rights negotiations with Silvia Lemus, Fuentes’ widow, was “always amicable and in the best of terms.”“Shecares a lot about the property and we went to great lengths to ensure that we would produce a high-concept series that would honor both the author and his story,” Rodriguez explained.
Noting that Boomdog is currently developing a number of horror genre IPs, Rodriguez remarked: “This adaptation of “Vlad” goes way beyond a classic horror, or even a horror show; it’s a mixed genre project that has elements of a modern thriller, a love story, a powerful drama and even some comedy… just like life itself.”
“I find it very attractive and well-timed to propose a new look at classic genres such as thriller and horror through vampirism and romance,” Cravioto agreed. “I think ‘Vlad’ pays homage, preserves and rethinks this classic story from Fuentes’ novel, which on a personal level as a director and story seeker, poses a new narrative and formal challenge,” he added.
Cravioto, one of the most celebrated of film and TV directors, producers and screenwriters in Mexico, served as showrunner and director for Netflix’s “Diablero” and as director of series “Monarca,” among others. His feature film “Malvada” will debut in theaters later this year while “Corazonada” is heading to Paramount+.
Winner of a slew of top literary honors, including the Miguel de Cervantes Prize and the Belisario Dominguez Medal of Honor, Fuentes was regarded as one of the illustrious writers in the Spanish-speaking world before his death in 2012. Some of Fuentes’ most acclaimed novels include “The Death of Artemio Cruz,” “Aura,” “Terra Nostra,” “The Old Gringo” and “Christopher Unborn.”
“Vlad” was first published in 2004 as a short story as part of Fuentes’ Inquieta Compañía and was later released as a novel in 2012, shortly before his death. The New York Times in its 2012 review of “Vlad,” said “it displays the strengths of a great writer’s late oeuvre to excellent effect” and Publisher’s Weekly stated the novel “follows the pattern of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” but infuses the story with a modern sensibility and vivid imagery.”
Interest in the legendary vampire has sparked recently in the wake of news in September about two separate takes on the making of the Spanish-language version of the Bela Lugosi classic, “Dracula.” In the first project, Eugenio Derbez is attached to star and executive produce comedic series “They Came at Night” (working title), which is in development at TelevisaUnivision’s SVOD platform Vix+.
Separately, Gato Grande announced at Madrid TV event Iberseries & Platino Industria that “Money Heist” star Alvaro Morte would play the actor Carlos Villarias who took on the Dracula role in the Spanish-language version.
Both shows are set in the early 1930s when Hollywood made foreign-language versions of their films, using the same sets and costumes of the original versions, given the absence of subtitling and dubbing technology then.
Endemol Shine Boomdog’s credits include scripted series “Subete a Mi Moto” (Amazon Prime), “Nicky Jam: El Ganador” (Netflix), International Emmy winner “El Vato” (NBCUniverso) and “Todo por Lucy” (Amazon Prime). Boomdog and Cholawood just wrapped production on Kate Del Castillo’s upcoming series “A Beautiful Lie” for Pantaya/VIX.
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