Netflix To Make Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘Cien Años De Soledad’

For the first time, the famous novel Cien Años de Soledad has come to the screen. Netflix has adapted Gabriel García Márquez’s greatest work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, into a major television series.

This is a big moment for book lovers and TV fans. The book came out in 1967 and is one of the most important stories from Latin America. For a long time, people thought it was impossible to film.

Many movie studios wanted to make a movie about the Buendía family. However, the author said no for many years. He worried that a two-hour movie would cut too much of the story.

According to Netflix, they agreed to specific rules to keep the story right. Márquez’s sons, Rodrigo García and Gonzalo García Barcha, joined the project as executive producers.

“For decades our father was reluctant to sell the film rights to Cien Años de Soledad because he believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film,” said García.

He also noted that his father felt “that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice.”

Building the World of Macondo

Netflix decided to make a long TV show instead of a movie. This gives them enough time to tell the whole story. The show consists of 16 episodes in total, split into two parts.

Filming took place entirely in Colombia. This was a strict rule from the family. They wanted the setting to look and feel real, not like a fake set on a stage.

To make this happen, the production hired a strong team. Writer José Rivera led the script writing. Two directors, Alex García López and Laura Mora, managed the filming. Mora is known for her work on The Kings of the World.

The story covers many generations of one family. It uses a style called magical realism, where magic appears in the real world. This required a very large production team.

Dynamo, the company that made Narcos, produced the series. They built the fictional town of Macondo from scratch in the Tolima region of Colombia. The set covered an area as big as 70 soccer fields.

“But in the current golden age of series, with the level of talented writing and directing, the cinematic quality of content, and the acceptance by worldwide audiences of programs in foreign languages, the time could not be better,” Garcia explained.

A Global Spanish Series

Netflix can show the series to people all over the world at the same time. This helps a Spanish-language show reach a huge audience. The book has been translated into over 40 languages, so the story is already famous globally.

Garcia highlighted this special chance. “We are excited to support Netflix and the filmmakers in this venture, and eager to see the final product,” he said.

The first part of the series focuses on the early days of the town and the family. Actors like Claudio Cataño and Marleyda Soto play the lead roles of Colonel Aureliano Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán.

This project proves that big stories can be told in their original language. It opens the door for more Latin American stories to get big budgets and global releases.

Editor’s Note: Part 1 of the series officially premiered on Netflix on December 11, 2024.

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