Miami-based BTF Media, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is planning a series reboot for Fabián Bielinsky’s Argentine modern classic “Nine Queens” (“Nueve Reinas”), a feature film which 20 years ago introduced the world to one of Argentina’s most bankable actors in Ricardo Darín (“The Secret in Their Eyes,” “Wild Tales”) and film-TV crossover superstar Gastón Pauls (“Todos contra Juan,” Pablo Larraín’s “Fuga”).
It also established, just as the New Argentine Cinema was lifting off in the country, a crossover style of movie which could combine artistic ambition and genre heft to appeal to broad audiences at home and abroad, a filmic mode inherited by Juan José Campanella and Pablo Trapero among others.
The announcement is the latest in what could prove a trend for the company, as earlier this year BTF Media also secured the remake rights to Alejandro Amenabar’s Golden Globe-nominated “The Others,” starring Nicole Kidman, and are planning a Spanish-language series version of the horror classic.
BTF Media founders Ricardo Coeto and Francisco Cordero will produce the new series, with Argentine powerhouse production shingle Patagonik (“Zama,” “An Unexpected Love”) which was behind the original, co-producing.
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“We are pleased to bring back to light such an iconic piece. This remake will also be legendary,” said Coeto.
“This is a clever twist-filled story that is undoubtedly enjoyable to watch. We are very sure it will attract a huge audience,” added Francisco Cordero.
Bielinsky’s breakout debut and an award winner many times over at festivals around the world, “Nine Queens” put him on a fast track to becoming one of Latin America’s most important filmmakers. He followed that up with 2005’s “The Aura,” also starring Darín, which played in competition at San Sebastián and Sundance, before his life was cut short far too short by a heart attack when the director was only 47-years-old.
In the original film, two con artists, played by Darín and Pauls, meet fortuitously at a convenience store and decide to team up and scam a rare stamp collector out of his half-million-dollar collection.
The “Nine Queens” deal marks the latest expansive move at BTF Media which broke out to large recognition co-producing Disney’s first bio-series in Latin America, Juan Gabriel portrait “Hasta que Te Conocí.” Betting on a high-end drama series as a future growth industry for a Latin America in desperate need of economic recuperation, BTF Media teamed with Disney for another smash hit “Serena’s Secret,” about the murder of the legendary crossover Mexican-American Tejano singer.
BTF Media is also preparing Amazon Prime Video’s highly anticipated “Maradona: Blessed Dream,” the scripted docu-series of Argentina and one of the world’s most iconic soccer players.
Already running offices in Mexico, Argentina and Spain, in April BTF Media launched production operations in Chile, to be headed by Cordero, Coeto and “The Suspended Mourning” creator Hernán Caffiero.
