“Narcos” producer Gaumont USA, a pre-LA post base in Gaumont, France, behind “Lepine,” is developing a fellow comedy led by “La Reina del Sur” star Kate del Castillo’s LA-based Chorowood and “How To Away With Murder” star Karla Souza.
Del Castillo and Chorowood proceed with Point Blank, an action thriller written by Alexandro Aldoreto (The House of Flowers) and is directed by Salvador Espinosa (Harrina, Club of Crows).
In the second title, which again targets the Mexican market, Noe Santilyn Lopez, which broke out in “Gift Table,” the only local film to win the top Mexican box office charts this year, directed the buddy comedy “La Chef,” written by American American Emma Ramos, and also directed the actress (“Summer”) and “Written!”
Del Castillo not only co-produces the two films, but also stars in both, as Garmont America’s SVP Creative Affairs and producer, as a producer in Latin America, Latin America and Spain.
Beyond the Collowwood Gaumont USA contract, Carla Sousa will also make “Las Wonnaves” the top line in the Mexican market.
In a further new project, Gaumont USA co-produced “Me Engana Que Eu Gosto”, written by Patricia Corso (“Oxygen masks don’t drop automatically”), directed by Pedro Amorim (“Slam”) and created by Brazilian Coiote. He also joined Gloveplay to produce Walter Salles’ Academy Award-winning “I’m Still Nere” by joining Gloveplay, Prodco Ventre and Globoplay, the top Brazilian VOD player, behind Carlos Saldanja’s “100 Days.” This series turns on the rise and fall of Brazilian charismatic high fashion icon Alia Natranchesi. Written by Giuliano Cedroni, Elena Soles, Mariana Trench Bastos and Pedro Perazzo.
Gaumont USA is also developing another true crime series using HBO Max.
In Spain, Garmont is working on the buddy comedy film “Bratt.”
Gaumont USA, which is also targeting the Spanish market, has partnered with Argentine author directors Mariano Kohn and Gaston Duplato on the adaptation of Haidukowski’s Argentine novel “Directors on How to Take the Supermarket.” Cohn and Duprat were hugely successful in the Spanish film “Official Competition,” starring Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez.
“Spain is a very attractive market for its volume. Netflix has become extremely important in Spain with infrastructure such as Tres Cantos, Madrid and the European production hubs in projects with that volume,” Gabela said. It is also an attractive place to produce for all incentives. So it is an area where there is high demand for fully owned projects and the ability to acquire independent license routes. ”
Built on top of “Narcos”
Multiple new title announcements, and more, are on the eve of Iberseries & Platino Industrial, where Gaumont CEO and owner Sidonie Dumas will give a keynote address on September 30th on I&PI’s first day.
The news for these and other titles comes as Gaumont has been changed to 130 this year. “We don’t live in nostalgia, but we are extremely proud to be known as the oldest studio in the world,” Gaumont USA president Nicolas Atlan told Variety.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the premiere of “Narcos.” This is a streaming-era production of Gaumont USA’s first Latin American set, highlighting the capabilities of Gaumont and Colombia’s Dynamo in the early years of Netflix’s history, highlighting its ability to create premium, large canvas and, in part, non-English titles.
The much more advanced Gaumont USA show and film produced over the past 24 months, “Foot Ro de Cielto” by Lucia Puenzo and Nicolas Puenzo – a six-episode close-related psychological thriller produced for Paramount and starring in Kemayaz Pik, Andres Para, Sousa, Souza and Nettle.
Del Castillo and Diana Bovio (“They Come to the Night”), comedy “”The Biggest Fans” (“The Fans of Lamas”), Hollywood Cancellation Culture Satire premiered around the world on Netflix earlier this year.
Leading by Diego Luna, hosting “Avatar” and Jimmy Kimmel Live, then well on Hollywood radar! For four nights, the shooting was just shrouded in “Mexico 86.” This is a dark humorous drama about Mexico’s long-term but successful bid to host the 1986 Soccer World Cup. It is manufactured by Gaumont USA for Netflix and written and directed by Gabriel Ripstein (“Unknown Enemies”). The release will coincide with the 2025 World Cup, which will take place in the US, Mexico and Canada. Since 2008’s “Rudo & Cursi”, it marks Luna’s first big, flashy live-action film in his home country of Mexico.
Nicholas Atlan and Christian Gabella
Provided by Gaumont
Turn on the IP
The project will also help highlight a integrated and thriving growth strategy in Gaumont USA.
“Narcos was the first series in Spanish and English and was a market breakthrough,” Atlan said.
“It also proved how important Latin America and Spain are to Gaumont. Since then, we have been working on developing a big Spanish market and a Brazilian market,” Atlan added.
“They’re focusing on Mexico, Spain and Brazil at the beginning, from hiring Christians (Gabella), and they’re the first successful in ‘Narcos’, eight TV series seasons and two films,” he said. These seasons incorporate three Colombian “Narcos” (2015-18) and “Narcos” (2018-21) and two “President El” were first produced primarily in Chile (2020) and second in Amazon Brazil (2022).
“Our great achievement as a European company with offices based in Los Angeles can help us infiltrate these territory in the way we could,” Gabella said.
Gaumont USA continues to work with the talent pool they created. However, one strategy has evolved. “Recently, we’ve used our existing IP as the best way to make shows and films,” Gabella told Variety. “Its existing IPs are both internal from Gaumont’s films and television libraries, using Mexico, Spain, Brazil, or external, and using third parties to adapt the inspiration of books and real events and real people’s stories.”
The first fruit of this strategy was the “biggest fan” sourced from Garmont’s property “J’adore ce que vous faites.” “Point Blank” adapts Fred Kabeye’s 2010 classic, starring Jill Lelouch in an 80-minute sprint, saving his additional wife from execution. “It’s a huge number of brands for Kate del Castillo,” Gabella pointed out.
“LA Chef” is a 2014 makeover of Jean Reno-Led Sleeper’s “Comme Un Chef” but has been rethinked for a different culinary culture. Souza’s Reversions “Les Vedettes” Gaumont 2022 Buddy Movie. “Me Engana Que Eu Gosto” is a Brazilian adaptation of Garmont’s French title “La Doublure.”
Gaumont USA has an exploratory conversation with key Brazilian players about adapting award title slates specifically for the Brazilian market, Gabela added.
The whole picture
Following cuts from US studios and the 2023 Hollywood strike, the production sector that exploded on Peak TV is now chasing the peak television market at 75%, Ampere Analysis observes. “In 2019 and 2020, there were eight streamers. Now (in Chile) there is 1.6,” Juan de Dios Laline observed at Sanfic.
However, to run the game plan, Gaumont can see some Tailwinds. According to data, major services such as Netflix have expanded their series activities in Latin America following the strike that reached the second half of 2023.
According to Ampere analysis, the Netflix Film Commission rose seven times in 2023 to 13 in 2024 and six in the first half of 2025.
Gabella agreed. “Mexican streaming services are more active and have a bigger slate. In recent years, they have also opened up opportunities for film licensing, particularly in particular. The appetite for volumes may be the same, but previously it was heavily weighted on original and completely refined projects by streamers.
Window is currently popular. Gaumont USA’s Mexican Slate “we’re looking for both a pair of titles directly on streamers and a buyout model, the dominant model of the last 10-12 years,” Gavera said. “We also implement a model that essentially licenses certain regions, windows and periods to streamers and retains other rights, including theater rights.”
With the Big Star on the table, Gaumont USA also enjoys a trial and error relationship with the streaming service.
“Germont has an incredible relationship with Netflix around the world. Think French “Lupin” and the film, German “Wild Bar” We have the same relationship with Amazon,” Atlan said. “We have a strong relationship with streamers that we’ve been working on for a very long time,” he added.
“There are currently four active developments set up in Mexico, Brazil and the US Mexico using four different streamers. This is a cross-border project,” Gabella said.
Gaumont USA is looking to collaborate on a film with local partners who will bring sensibilities about the local market.
“In the film, it’s not that we do them 100% ourselves. We do them with partners. This is either a strategic production partner or a finance partner,” Atlan said. “People come to us for the very abundant IP we can adapt to. It works especially well. The film models are Mexican films, Spanish Spain, Brazil.”
“Our aim is to partner with the best writers, directors, actors, talents and producers of these countries to share IPS regardless of the book or title in our catalogue. And we go in a very agile way,” Atlan concluded.
