Since the acquisition of Underground in August 2019 by NBCUniversal Telemundo, the Argentine production company ‘entered a new era’ generating more global content but with the same disruptive essence as always. The success of Diario de Un Gigolo, four new productions in 2022/2023 and future plans, are described byPablo Culell, VP Original Content, Development & Head of Teleseries.
Led by Sebastián Ortega, the now called Telemundo Streaming Studios operates as a pan-regional production house with operations in Miami, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. It is in this last market that it is generating more novelties recently, starting with the new offices recently opened in the City of Buenos Aires, where it has a total of 760sq2 divided into two floors of 380sq2.
Each plant is integrated with the best technology and infrastructure to develop series, movies and documentaries with the best quality. There are finance offices, legal, human resources, an operations room, screening rooms, offices for executives and an entire plant for post-production. ‘These new offices mean an improvement with quality standards worthy of a multinational. They are more corporate, combining the usual style with the prestige of NBCUniversal’, commented Pablo Cullel, VP Original Content, Development & head of Teleseries of the Studio.
Before the acquisition in August 2019, Undergroundwas coming from great successes: 100 Días para Enamorarse, El Marginal3, Un Gallo para Esculapio, Bios (NATGeo), and the feature film El Ángel. Since then, El Marginal 4 and 5, LA Originals, Bios have been made, in addition to the most recent success of Ortega, Diario de un Gigolo, a romantic thriller in the tone of a telenovela produced 100% in Argentina with international cast.It is currently #3 worldwide, #6 in the USA, #2 in Argentina and #1 in Turkey. ‘We are very happy because it is a global success: it is in the Top 10 in more than 45 countries. And after Netflix, Telemundo’s window in the Hispanic USA follows next month, expanding the footprint’, he highlighted.
Among the upcoming projects are the Mexican version of Historias de un Clan called El Secreto de la Familia Greco, also filmed in Buenos Aires with Mexican actors with a Netflix premiere before the end of the year, and the recent announcement of Cathedrals, an intra-family drama with excerpts from a thriller based on the homonymous book by Claudia Piñeiro that will be produced by Telemundo Streaming Studios for HBO Max Latin America, which will premiere in 2023.
But there is more. ‘From now on we have three fiction productions, two to be produced in Argentina, which includes a romantic suspense youth series and a comedy with overtones of bizzarro police, and one in Colombia, based on a true story’, Cullel completed.
‘Underground has always been keen in innovating in genres and producing new content. The only thing that has not changed is our disruptive and daring DNA. The formula we apply is based on three good elements: narrative, cast and story. We don’t put energy into what we tell, but how we tell it’, he summarized.
Another relevant feature of the operation of Telemundo Streaming Studios in the region is the coordinated work between Miami, Mexico City, Bogotá and Buenos Aires. ‘Most of the Latin American stories come from here, from our group of authors such as Alejandro Quesada, Silvina Frejdkes (Diario de un Gigoló) and Omar Quiroga (El Marginal), but we are working on more and more projects between the hubs,’ he said.
Among the upgrades on Cullel’s new role is his responsibility for the Teleseries, the evolution of Telemundo’s Super Series. ‘It is a new dramatic concept for series formed of 40 to 60 episodes with seasons of 15-20 episodes. It is a telenovela with a premium bill, a classic melodrama with a focus on younger audiences’, he described.
And about the great moment of ‘short soap operas’, he replied that ‘he is not surprised’ and concluded: ‘The reason why they are a global success is because the basis of fiction is melodrama, and the antagonistic hero/villain, love/betrayal. As long as the narrative is simple, clear and concrete, dramaturgy is the genre that travels best. It is a content with which they identify from Argentina to the USA, from Portugal to Eastern Europe, and from Turkey to Asia. And Diario de un Gigolo is proof of that’.
