Australian Streamer Stan Boards ‘Hotel Cocaine’ Crime Drama From ‘Narcos’ Creator Chris Brancato

EXCLUSIVE: Australian streamer Stan will bring Hotel Cocaine to its subscribers at the same time as the show launches in the U.S. having boarded the series. The show hails from Chris Brancato, creator of Narcos and Godfather of Harlem, who has described his new drama as “Casablanca on cocaine.”

In the U.S. it will be on MGM+ and bow on June 16. In Australia the Stan Original launches immediately after the U.S., but given the timezone shift that means it will debut on June 17.

It is produced by MGM+ Studios, in association with Stan.

The series stars Danny Pino as Roman Compte, a Cuban exile and manager of the infamous Mutiny Hotel, which is the center of the Miami cocaine scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Mutiny is a hotel and a glitzy nightclub, and the go-to spot for high-rollers, narcos, models, and celebrities.

Michael Chiklis plays a cop, Agent Zulio, taking on the cocaine gangs, and Mark Feuerstein is the tripped-out hotel owner Burton Greenberg. Yul Vazquez stars as Nestor Cabal, Roman’s brother and a Miami drug kingpin.

Brancato recently unpacked the story behind Hotel Cocaine at Series Mania. “I was fascinated by that moment in history when you had the counter-culture revolution going on, and what we’re watching is two things; on the one side the pleasure going on at the Mutiny, and at the same time the war that goes on to deliver those [drugs],” he said. “Hotel Cocaine might be viewed as the combination of the ‘Me Decade’ with the violence of the drug war going on in Miami.”

Amazon MGM Studios Distribution is selling Hotel Cocaine internationally. The series was filmed in the Dominican Republic, which doubles as Miami.