The 44-year-old Mexican actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder will star in a new drama series, The Many Names of Aura, which is being developed by A+E Studios and Telemundo Global Studios.
Soto, who stars in Netflix’s You Cannot Hideand the telenovelaSeñora Acero, is fronting The Many Names of Aura.
The project marks the first time that A+E Studios, which is behind Netflix’sThe Lincoln Lawyer, and Telemundo Global Studios have teamed up.
Telemundo will produce and hold the U.S. rights and A+E Studios will oversee international distribution.
Created and written by Luis Zelkowicz (El Señor de los Cielos), the series follows fashion designer and con artist Aura (Soto), along with her father Tiago and grandfather Facundo, run a tight operation conning the wealthy businessmen of Mexico. As Aura juggles her two professional lives and her personal with her daughter, she struggles to balance it all. Finally, she makes a decision to turn on her team and risk everything, to perhaps finally put her family first.
Raúl Alarcón is being recognized for his breakthrough career…
The Latino music executive who serves as CEO and chairman of the Spanish Broadcasting System, one of the largest Spanish-language media companies in the U.S., will be honored at Variety’s second annual Miami Entertainment Town lunch, to be held on Thursday, April 13, in the Florida city.
Alarcón willreceive the Legends and Groundbreakers Award for his role in promoting Latin music radio stations across the nation.
A legend in Miami, Alarcón has been on the forefront of promoting Latin artists, via radio play, and has been a crucial advocate for many of the biggest stars in Latin music.
The event, in partnership with CN Bank, celebrates the growing entertainment and media industry based out of Miami and recognizes those profiled in Variety’s Miami Entertainment Impact Report.
At the celebration, Ronald Day, President of Entertainment and Content Strategy for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, and Karen Barroeta, Executive Vice President of Production and Development Telemundo Global Studios, will participate in a keynote conversation with Rodrigo Nieto-Galvis, Entertainment Banking Team Leader at CN Bank Miami. The conversation will be centered around Telemundo’s strategy and around music and original programming based out of Miami.
This year, Variety will be adding a new award to the program with mega-music producer Timbaland.
He will receive the Pioneer Award for his work creating Beat Club and producing music with top artists in Miami.
Loud and Live’s CEO Nelson Albareda will participate in a spotlight conversation with Miami Dade County Mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, about the city’s expansion into the entertainment sector.
Variety’s Chief Operating Officer, Dea Lawrence, and City National Bank’s Head of Entertainment Banking, JaHan Wang, will give opening remarks with Miami Beach Mayor, Dan Gelber.
“City National Bank congratulates Variety’s Miami Impact Report honorees, especially Raúl Alarcón and Timbaland who have transformed the Miami media market and entertainment industry at large,” said Wang. “Our bank has delivered for the entertainment industry for almost seven decades, and we are especially proud of our work to support Latin music, television and film in South Florida and beyond.”
Telemundo has renewed La Reina del Sur for a third season with the 47-year-old Mexican actress set to reprise her iconic role as Teresa Mendoza.
“I love playing Teresa Mendoza and am proud of the success of La Reina del Sur, the series that unleashed a new genre in Spanish language television,” del Castillo said. “Each season, Teresa Mendoza’s character evolves and gets more interesting. She is a very human character with her own flaws and imperfections. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of fun playing her, and I’m curious to see what will happen in this new season. She’s a woman I learn from in every season and every episode, who continues to surprise me.”
The first season of the series, based on Arturo Perez-Reverte’s novel, launched in 2011 and returned for a second season in 2019.
The second season picked up eight years after the events of the season one finale with Mendoza pregnant and unsure of her future. When La Reina returns, it emerged that she’s disappeared into the U.S. Federal Witness Protection Program and is currently living in Italy under the name of Maria Dantes with her daughter Sofia.
Last year, del Castillo said she “hated” the fact that she had to have a double for Mexico-set scenes of the narco drama after she became a major player in the El Chapo saga, helping to set up a meeting between Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán and Sean Penn in 2015.
But she’ll now be able to return to Mexico if the series films there.
“La Reina del Suris a high-level production that has taken us to shoot all over the world season after season. But yes, if the story takes us to Mexico next season, I will be there. I’m so excited,” she added.
Showrunner Marco Santana, who’s also president of Telemundo Global Studios, said that the company was currently in the script and overall development phase of the new season.
“We are working with an incredible group of writers to bring to life the continuation of a thrilling and involved story that we are all very excited for,” he told Deadline. “We have filmed La Reina del Suraround the world. It’s a story that travels through different locations, and season three won’t be an exception. We are planning for, and are hopeful that, by the time we begin production in 2021, restrictions due to the coronavirus will have eased.”
The third season will start production early next year, as long as production can resume as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The third season will be a co-production between Telemundo Global Studios and Netflix; Telemundo holds rights in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, while the streamer airs the series globally.
La Reina del Suris Telemundo’s most successful ‘Super Series’, used to differentiate it from its traditional long-running telenovelas.
“It is the show that propelled the network to the top of the charts and kicked off Telemundo’s Super Series franchise as the most successful Super Series in the network’s history,” said Ronald Day, EVP, Entertainment, Telemundo Networks. “It was the show that redefined Hispanic media and set a new standard in our content offering. There is a tremendous fan base for the first two seasons and for Teresa Mendoza, the iconic character played by Kate del Castillo, so we knew we had to bring her back. This is a series that resonates with the new Latino of today who craves for contemporary cutting-edge narratives coupled with strong characters in a premium-level production. The first two seasons were wildly successful on linear and across all platforms, so as we continue to look at all new IP through an omnichannel lens, it made a lot of sense to bring La Reina back.”
“The return of La Reina del Surcomes at a great time when we continue to shape a new era in Hispanic media with content exclusively made for Latinos living in the US looking for culture-centric stories that are both American and Latino,” Day added.
The 22-year-old Mexican actress, who rose to acclaim as the breakout star of Telemundo’s Ugly Bettyre-make Betty EnNY, has signed with Ryan Muckenthaler and Ali Benmohamed at United Talent Agency (UTA) for representation in all areas.
Torres was also recently named Best New Actress at the Produ Awards at Mipcom Mexico. She’s close to wrapping her second television series, Enemigo Intimo, for Spanish language powerhouse Telemundo Global Studios.
The actress is relocating to Los Angeles in January 2020 to pursue English language film and television opportunities.
Torres also recently signed with Los Angeles and London based management/production company Avatar Entertainment, where she will be repped by Val Valdez and Larry Robinson.
Rounding out her team, Torres has also recently signed with lawyer Maria Suarezat Hanson Jacobson & Teller.
Manager Val Valdez says, “[Torres] is probably the hottest Latino star under the age on 25 years old and her talent is only exceeded by her tireless work ethic.”
Soto, who stars in Netflix’s You Cannot Hide and the telenovela Señora Acero, is fronting The Many Names of Aura.
