Could uplifting comedy become a new international force from Latin America? This year’s six Content America Copro Pitch finalists certainly think so.
Three projects, “Dr. Sex,” “José Piedra, a Guy With Bad Luck” and “Sexorcism,” are considered important as feel-good second comedies/dramas. Another, “Pioneers,” delivers a real-life-inspired chronicle laced with humor.
The other two are almost necessarily crime dramas, thrillers. The genre of many titles changes. “Sexorsismo” “turns the traditional single mother narrative on its head and asks a simple but radical question: What happens to a man whose life is forever changed by unexpected parenthood?” says producer Marlon Quintero.
Similarly, “Yellow Submarine” is a drug thriller whose central characters revolve around ordinary people who find themselves unexpectedly lucky with cocaine.
In other ways, Kopropić seems to have a lot to say about contemporary novels. Most producers in the past decade have publicly stated how big their budgets are. In Miami, the people behind the Copro title explain how they bring series to life at an effective cost per episode. For example, the classic one-shot comedy “Doctor Sex” is trying to save 30% on costs by filming in Colombia.
Copro Pitch projects will be judged by a prestigious panel of judges: Ben Odell (3Pas Studios), Cindy Teperman (Infinity Hill), Erik Barmack (Wild Sheep Content), Teresa Gonzalez (Conspiraçao), Robert Frank (Intaglio Films), and Albertina Marfil (NBC Universal Formats).
Let’s take a closer look at the finalists:
“Sex Doctor”
Mexico
Author: Juan Pablo Solano
Showrunner: Noe Santillan-Lopez
Production company: Juggerbyte Mexico
Emiliano, a sex therapist, shoots videos about his passion for helping people embrace their sexuality. It quickly spread, and “Doctor Sex” was born. “In conservative and critical Mexico, he becomes a spokesperson for an unlikely liberation and begins a new practice while hiding a painful secret: he hasn’t had an orgasm in five years,” the synopsis reads. “This series is the type of feel-good, character-driven comedy that gives viewers something to talk about with their friends, co-workers and family,” said Solano of Mexico and Colombia-based Jaguar Bite. The company is responsible for the production and future production of Netflix’s feature film Susana & Elvira, as well as providing production services for director Zack Snyder’s upcoming film The Last Photograph and Apple TV’s The Big Cigar, both filmed in Colombia.
“Espacemo”
Colombia, Puerto Rico
Creator/Writer: Cristina Villar Rosa
Director: Nico Martinez
Production company: Perenku Media Lab, Itoko Media
Part Bogotá Noir, in which Raquel Correal, a detective with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and childhood memory problems, investigates the highly sexualized death of a male sex worker and investigates a city ravaged by oligarchy, corporate corruption, and carefully buried perversions. Produced and written by Cristina Villar Rosa, producer of the Colombian Academy Macondo Award-winning film “Sofia y El Terco” and the Tallinn selection “Topos.” “Topos” director Nico Martinez is set to direct Eps. 1 and 8.
“Jose Piedra, the Unlucky Man” (“Jose Piedra, the Unlucky Man”)
Argentina
Original author: Jonathan Ull, Javier Ponzone
Screenplay: Ur, Ponzone
Producer: Ur, Ponzone
Production company: Scarpetta Media
Jose Piedra, 35, has spent his life believing he was born with bad luck. When his recent misfortune spreads online, fame upends his life and his first love asks him if his luck is really starting to turn around. From Buenos Aires and Miami-based Scarpetta Media, “A feel-good comedy about second chances that blends humor, romance, and digital culture to explore how labels shape our lives and how love… “We explore how it can be an unexpected force that changes everything. There isn’t a show right now that focuses on bad luck as a defining belief in life and the idea that everything in life happens for a reason,” says Ull, who will be presenting at Content Americas.
“Pioneer” (“Pionellas”)
Author: Pablo Udenio
Writer: Udenio
Producer: Udenio
Production company: Duca
I’m Gilda director Lorena Muñoz has been tapped to direct the limited script series about Argentina’s first national soccer team, formed to compete in the 1971 Women’s World Cup, and will be created and produced by Pablo Udenio, director of The Gunman and The Virgin of the Quarry, at the acclaimed Buenos Aires-based Duca. “At its heart, ‘Pioneers’ is a female-led sports story set in a deeply patriarchal era, about women who dared to challenge the rules of the time,” Udenio told Variety. Argentina’s results include a 4-1 win over England. “What moves me most about this project is the combination of intimacy, courage and collective power, and how soccer becomes a tool for identity, resistance and freedom,” Muñoz added.
“Sexorcism” (“Sexorcisismo”)
America, Israel
Author: Isabella Santo Domingo
Author: Santo Domingo
Producer: Marlon Quintero
Production company: CIC, Shipur
Based on part of Santo Domingo’s novel trilogy, which has sold more than 2 million copies, the film was produced by Marlon Quintero (“Los Simuladores”) of Miami-based CIC Media and co-developed by Cipur, the Israeli company behind director Ron Leshem’s “Bad Boy.” Billed as a dramatic romantic comedy, “Sexorcismo” centers on Gabriel, a reluctant ladies’ man who treads carefully when a baby shows up on his doorstep with no idea who the mother is. “Blending irreverent comedy and emotional truth, this series forces our former womanizer protagonist to face the consequences of her past, turning a DNA mystery into a journey of responsibility, empathy, and growth,” Quintero told Variety.
“Yellow Submarine”
iceland, spain
Author: Horzur Runarsson, Jarmo Lampela
Screenplay: Halldor Halldorsson, Runarsson, Lampella
Producer: Jonas Margeir Ingolfsson
Executive producers: Olafur Dali Ólafsson, Birkir Blair Ingolfsson, Runarsson, Lampella
Production company: ACT4, Secuoya Studios
Sold to six European broadcasters with contracts in Australia, Asia and the US, ACT 4’s first series, “Reykjavik Fusion,” is a Cannes series flagship and the creator and writer debut of “Black Sands” producer Hórður Runarsson, proving that carefully selected premium series can be fully financed without waiting for a deal with a major streaming service. Now he’s back as creator and writer, teaming up with Lampela, head of Yle’s adventurous fiction department, and strong Spanish partner Secuoya Studios. An underdog crime thriller about a fisherman, his reckless daughter and a loyal deckhand who net a Colombian drug drone submarine. They are probably making money wisely.
