STREAMING

'One hundred years of solitude' reaches Netflix with production of the author's children

According to the newspaper El Pais, the streaming platform has achieved what dozens of film producers have tried for half a century: to buy the rights to 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', the emblematic novel by the Colombian writer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
During his lifetime, Gabriel García Márquez always doubted that the work could work in large format and also always demanded that it be filmed in Spanish, which for many years meant less commercial viability.
Now, the children of the author, Rodrigo and Gonzalo García, accepted that Netflix would convert their father's classic into a series, in what will be the third major Spanish project of the platform, after "Narcos" and "Roma."
The project is still in its initial stages, but Netflix has already assured that it will only hire Latin American professionals to produce the series, which will be shot in Colombia.
"We know it will be magical and important for Colombia and Latin America, but the novel is universal," Francisco Ramos, vice president of Spanish-language productions at Netflix, told The New York Times.
Rodrigo and Gonzalo García will be the executive producers of the adaptation. This will be Rodrigo's tenth television project, after having directed chapters of "The Sopranos," "Seven Sides of Earth," or "The Fair of Magic," among others.
In an interview with Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, Rodrigo Garcia said that the series is expected to debut in mid-2020.
"I think this is a good time for the series, and with the reach of Netflix, I believe that the work, the author, Colombia and the world of Macondo will reach a wider audience," he added.
The producers finish with this work the long trajectory of the work of his father. Published in 1967, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" sold about 50 million copies and was translated into 46 languages.
The success of this novel - fundamental for the international recognition of Gabriel García Márquez and key factor for the attribution of the Nobel of Literature - was due to the boom of the Latin American Literature of Years 1960 and 1970.
For decades, its history, centered on the Buendía family, descendant of the founder of the Macondo village, is a must read all over the world, from American institutions to European academic circles. Lusa