LONDON – Spiral International, executive producer and leading Latin American distributor for Red Arrow Studios International, has signed an agreement with Turner Latin America – to bring the Mexican adaptation of Falco, based on Red Arrow Studio International’s acclaimed scripted format The Last Cop, to its cable channel TNT in Latin America, which is available for 62 million of subscribers across that territory.
Based on the hit German series The Last Cop, this all-new Spanish-language version (15 x 1 hour, and a feature length pilot) will hit screens in Mexico later this year. Turner Latin America’s pick-up follows the news that Falco Mexico has also sold to Amazon Prime Video for Latin America and to NBCUniversal’s Telemundo for the United States.
Falco is produced by Spiral International and production powerhouse Dynamo (Narcos, American Made), and features Michel Brown, star of the International Emmy award-winning series Sr. Ávila, in the lead role.
The series is showrun and directed by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, director and screenwriter Ernesto Contreras (Blue Eyelids, I Dream in Another Language, The Obscure Spring, El Chapo), who has a total of 19 International Film Festival wins and 9 nominations.
“We are pleased to be part of this agreement with Spiral, Red Arrow Studios and Dynamo to bring to the audience a quality production with a strong story. Falco has an innovative structure for television alongside a modern hero, with robust relationships between its characters and a fresh vision of Mexico away from stereotypes. A perfect mix of action and drama with touches of humour. This series is added to a bigger strategy that TNT has been developing in Mexico, focusing on local talent and shows with the objective of producing original content,” said Tomás Yankelevich, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, General Entertainment, Turner Latin America.
Zasha Robles, Executive Producer and Managing Director at Spiral International said: “We’re delighted to have Turner Latin America on board as our exclusive Pay TV partner for Falco. The series promises to be a thrilling, gritty and realistic exploration of crime in urban Mexico City and we’re confident it will be a huge hit with audiences across Latin America.”
Bo Stehmeier, EVP Global Sales, Red Arrow Studios International added: “Falco Mexico has great production values, a fantastic cast and an emotional narrative that will captivate audiences across Latin America and the rest of the world. We are excited to be distributing the series internationally.”
In Falco, it is 1994 in Mexico City, and Alejandro Falco is a reputable policeman with a promising future and a young family. However, his perfect world is shattered when he is shot by a mysterious attacker in the line of duty. With a bullet lodged in his head, Falco falls into a coma, for the next 24 years.
He awakens in 2018 with no memory of what happened, and to a world he doesn’t recognize – including the internet and mobile phones. But far more devastating is the news that his wife has remarried, and the baby daughter he once knew is now a grown woman.
The only thing he has left is his job, and Falco must find a way to start over and rebuild his life. But he is unable to let it go, having lost too much to not try and find out who did this to him. One way or another, he is going to get answers – and when he does, someone is going to pay.
Falco is based on the hit German series The Last Cop (Der Letzte Bulle, 60 x 1 hour), originally created and produced by ITV Studios Germany for SAT.1. Red Arrow Studios International has sold the scripted format around the world, with successful remake adaptations including four seasons of French version Falco on TF1 in France; a record-breaking production for Channel 5 Russia; two seasons and a theatrical movie version in Japan for Hulu and Nippon TV; and productions in the Czech Republic and Estonia. The Last Cop also won Best Scripted Format at the 2017 International Format Awards at MIPTV in Cannes.