Tag Archives: Pancho Mansfield

Starz Developing “Havana Quartet” Series Starring Banderas

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Antonio Banderas may soon be Havana good time on television.

Starz is developing a series set to star the 54-year-old Spanish actor, according to the network’s CEO Chris Albrecht.

Antonio Banderas

Banderas will also serve as an executive producer on the series.

Havana Quartet, based on the popular book series by Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura, follows a hard-drinking, romantic Cuban Police Detective Mario Conde (Banderas) who longs to be a writer but settled for a job as a detective.

Eduardo Machado will write the pilot.

Being developed from Entertainment One Television’s Havana Quartet, eOne will produce the series and distribute the hour-long drama worldwide.

“Starz continues to see great opportunity in continued programming diversification with many communities and genres,” said Albrecht. “Partnering with eOne to develop the drama series Havana Quartet with international star Antonio Banderas will allow us to give viewers a premium show that highlights the decaying beauty of Cuba during its ‘Special Period’ — a time and place which tourists rarely got to experience.”

Pancho Mansfield, president of global scripted programming of eOne Television, commented, “Havana Quartet is a series that captures both the romance and the underbelly of a country that has struck our collective curiosity and imagination for decades, and it was important for us to create a show that is authentic to Padura’s elegant, noir-tinged novels and to Cuba itself. We are delighted to partner with Starz and to have assembled such an exceptional team of talent to bring this special project to life.”

USA Network Looking to Adapt Telemundo’s “La Reina del Sur”

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Telemundo’s La Reina del Sur is about to get an English-language makeover…

The USA Network has given a pilot order to The Queen of the South, an English-language adaptation of the blockbuster 2011 telenovela starring Kate del Castillo.

La Reina del Sur Poster

Frequent USA collaborator Fox Television Studios (White Collar, Graceland) is set to produce the project. In his television debut, feature producer David T. Friendly (Little Miss Sunshine), who brought the project to the studio, is executive producing.

Based on the best-selling book of the same by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Queen of the South is a serialized crime drama that centers on Teresa Mendoza. When her drug-dealing boyfriend is unexpectedly murdered in Mexico, Teresa is forced to go on the run and seek refuge in America, where she teams with an unlikely figure from her past to bring down the leader of the very drug trafficking ring that has her on the run. In the process, she learns the tools of the trade and strategically positions herself to become the leader of the cartel.

M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller (The Final Girls) wrote the script and will also executive produce the series with Pancho Mansfield.

La Reina Del Sur is not a typical telenovela, with critics noting that is feels closer to Breaking Bad than One Life To Live, and Telemundo giving it a major Emmy campaign. It was Telemundo’s most expensive telenovela ever with a budget of $10 million and became the highest-rated program in the Spanish-language network’s 19-year history, averaging nearly 4.2 million total viewers and more than 2.8 million viewers adults 18-49. Its May 30, 2011 series finale was the No. 1 broadcast program of the night, of any language.

Queen of the South joins USA’s other pilots Stanistan, Mr. Robot and Colony.