Amazon’s Prime Video to Release Ana Maria Orozco’s “Betty la Fea: The Story Continues” In July

Posted on May 8, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Ana María Orozco is back in ‘Betty-ful’ action….

Amazon’s Prime Video has revealed the premiere date for Betty la Fea: The Story Continues, the sequel to the Colombian telenovela starring the 50-year-old Colombian actress that inspired ABC’s, Ugly Betty.

The new series will premiere on July 19 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Betty la Fea: The Story Continues, will see Orozco reprise her role of Betty alongside Jorge Enrique Abello. Returning cast members include Julián Arango, Natalia Ramírez, Lorna Cepeda, Luces Velásquez, Marcela Posada, Mario Duarte, Julio Cesar Herrera, Ricardo Vélez, Alberto León Jaramillo and Estefanía Gómez.

Rodrigo Candamil, Juanita Molin, Zharick León and Sebastián Osorio join the cast.

Betty, la fea: The Story Continues is an RCN Estudios production for Prime Video and tells the story of Beatriz Pinzón Solano 20 years after the conclusion of the original show. While an empowered and wiser Betty works hard on rebuilding her relationship with her teenage daughter Mila, her relationship with Armando begins to deteriorate, making her question if she made the right decision 20 years ago.

Yo soy Betty, la Fea, created by Fernando Gaitán, has aired in 180 countries, dubbed into 15 languages, and has been adapted in up to 28 territories, including India, South Africa, and the U.S.

After the telenovela’s original run, Colombia’s RCN produced a sequel series in 2001 which ran for one season.

Ugly Betty, starring America Ferrera, was inspired by the Colombian telenovela and ran for four seasons on ABC.

Telemundo most recently produced its own version in 2019, titled Betty in NY and starred Elyfer Torres.

Ana María Orozco to Reprise Iconic Betty Role in “Betty La Fea” Sequel

Posted on July 8, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Ana María Orozco is preparing for an Ugly return…

The 50-year-old Colombian actress will reprise her role in Betty La Fea, a sequel to the hit Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty, La Fea.

But Orozco, who portrayed Beatriz “Betty” Aurora Pinzón Solano in the original, won’t be the only person making a return in the sequel.

Jorge Enrique Abello, who portrayed Eco Moda CEO Armando Mendoza Sáenz, will also reprise his iconic role in Betty La Fea, which will debut on Amazon’s Prime Video in 2024.

Produced by Colombia’s Estudios RCN for Prime Video, the third season of the series picks up Betty’s story 20 years later when she’s a successful woman, mother and wife.

Still married to Armando (Abello) and trying to rebuild her relationship with her adolescent daughter, she battles the economic crisis of her family company and wonders whether the path she has chosen in life has really made her happy.

Directed by Mauricio Cruz Fortuna, Betty la Fea is written by Marta Betoldi, Juan Carlos Pérez and César Betancur.

The original series is hailed as the most successful telenovela of all time, having sold worldwide and spawning 20 remakes, the latest in South Africa.

The series’ overnight success was a testament to Orozco’s endearing performance and the talent of its creator, the late Fernando Gaitan, who imbued its characters with such universal humanity that they still resonate with young generations two and a half decades later. Rebelliously tender Betty transformed the world around her and with her Gaitan found a poignant twist to the Ugly Duckling trope.

“This is, I think, an homage to Fernando’s work. I’ve witnessed how this incredible writer’s room has taken his legacy and we’ve tried with immense care and respect to live up to the task. It is a huge challenge but I think we are in good hands,” Orozco commented.

She added “Even though Betty was so advanced for its time, there’s many elements that are very much from its time, from our culture, from our idiosyncrasy, issues that now, 20 years later we can address, to have a dialogue with a modern audience. I feel that her essence hasn’t changed but precisely because of this Betty surely poses many questions, She is now more mature, but life for a woman in her forties is never an easy challenge.”

“Yo soy Betty, la fea had a healthy energy, and the character an enormous impact on conventional beauty codes which explains why it became a global franchise with which all women can relate,” said Francisco Morales, who leads Prime Video’s team of contents strategy and acquisitions for Latin America.

Horta Developing the Family Drama “The Divine Monster” for Television

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

There’s a new monster project in Silvio Horta’s horizon…

The 41-year-old Cuban American writer/producer, best known for adapting the hit Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea into the award-winning ABC series Ugly Betty, has teamed with producer-director Brett Ratner for The Divine Monster.

The twisty family drama is based on the Belgian series of the same name (original title Het Goddelijke Monster).

Written by Horta, The Divine Monster chronicles the fall of the wealthy Vega family of Miami, whose real estate empire is built upon decades of greed, corruption, generally bad behavior and an alarming number of curious deaths.

Horta is executive producing with Ratner.

Warner Bros. Television, where Horta is under an overall deal, is the studio, producing with Horta’s Silent H Productions and Ratner’s RatPac Television.

The project has a script commitment.

Written by Rick D’Hiet based on the novels by Tom Lanoye, the Eyeworks-produced Het Goddelijke Monster aired in 2011.

NBC Gives Pilot Order with Green Light to Horta’s “The Curse Of The Fuentes Women”

Posted on January 17, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Silvio Horta is returning to the small screen with a new Latino-themed project…

NBC has given a pilot order with a green light to the 40-year-old Cuban American writer-producer and Ugly Betty creator’s drama The Curse Of The Fuentes Women.

Written/executive produced by Horta, The Curse Of The Fuentes Women comes from his Silent H Prods. and Warner Bros. Television.

When a magical and mysterious young man inexplicably emerges from the ocean, he breathes new passion into the lives of the Fuentes women – the beautiful but lonely Lola, her ailing mother Esperanza and her troubled daughter Soledad.

Horta received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series for Ugly Betty in 2007. He also won an ALMA Award for Outstanding Writing – Television Series, Mini-Series or Television Movie for the series, which was based on the hit Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea.

The CW Looking to Remake the Hit Venezuelan Telenovela “Juana la virgen”

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Following the crossover success of ABC’s Ugly Betty and Lifetime’s Devious Maids, the CW is looking to develop its own Spanish telenovela remake.

The network, in one of its first buys of the coming season, has put in development Jane the Virgin, a drama based on the Venezuelan telenovela Juana la virgen.

Jennie Snyder Urman, the creator of the CW’s short-lived drama series Emily Owens, MD, will write the adaptation for CBS Television Studios.

Jane the Virgin centers on Jane, a hard-working, religious girl who, due to a series of outrageous events, is accidentally artificially inseminated.

Juana la virgen, created by Perla Farias, was a hit in its original run on Venezuelan broadcaster RCTV in 2002, where it drew an average of 39.1% share, topping the competition by a wide margin.

The telenovela, which starred Daniela Alvarado and Ricardo Álamo, also did very well in Brazil, Spain, Colombia and Mexico and has been translated into 9 languages.

In the U.S., Juana la virgen aired on Univision and is available on Hulu.

Should Jane the Virgin become reality, it would join ABC’s Ugly Betty, which was based on the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, and the upcoming Sofia Vergara-executive-produced ABC series Killer Women, based on the Argentine crime drama Mujeres asesinas.

This would be Juana‘s second remake, following an Indian version.

Vergara’s “Killer Women” Gets Pilot Order at ABC

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

It looks like Sofia Vergara may soon be following in the footsteps of Salma Hayek…

ABC has ordered a pilot to an adaptation of Argentine series Killer Women from the 40-year-old Colombian actress-turned-producer, much like the network did with Hayek’s Ugly Betty, which was based on Fernando Gaitán‘s Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea.

Ugly Betty would end up being picked up to series and run on ABC for four seasons.

Killer Women revolves around a female Texas Ranger, with the Modern Family star attached to executive produce the hour-long project, which landed at the network with a script commitment in October.

The drama is based on the Argentine series Mujeres Asesinas, which itself is based on the book trilogy of the same name by Marisa Grinstein.

Hannah Shakespeare will pen the pilot script and executive produce alongside feature director Martin Campbell, Vergara and her Latin World Entertainment partner Luis Balaguer.

An American “Soy Tu Dueña” Remake in the Works?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Tom Castaneda

It looks like ABC will try its luck all over again with adapting a smash Latin American telenovela…

With help from Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria, ABC is developing an English-language remake of the hit Mexican telenovela Soy Tu Dueña, according to Deadline. Longoria will serve as an executive producer on the project.

Co-produced by Televisa—the company behind the Mexican version—the American version will center on a Texas heiress who loses her fortune and is forced to move back to the ranch she grew up on. Soy Tu Dueña, which translates to “I’m Your Owner,” will be called A Woman Of Steel.

A remake of the 1995 telenovela La Dueña, Soy Tu Dueña—which starred Mexican telenovela royalty, Fernando Colunga and Lucero—was a ratings hit when it aired on Univision last year, ranking as the network’s most-watched telenovela ever.

ABC is the only American network to successfully adapt a Latin American telenovela with Ugly Betty. Based on the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, the dramedy ran for four seasons on the network.

America Ferrera won a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and an Emmy for her portrayal of the fashionably challenged title character.

No word on who will star in ABC’s adaptation of Soy Tu Dueña. But Longoria wouldn’t be a bad choice… After all, she’s from Texas and her schedule should open up now that Desperate Housewives is going off the air this season.

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