NBCUniversal’s Telemundo has come onboard as a broadcast partner for the United States, for the new Mexican version of international hit crime series Falco.
Based on the hit German series The Last Cop – SAT.1’s most successful crime series ever, and the French remake Falco – one of the most successful productions on TF1 in the last decade, this all-new Spanish-language version (15 x 1 Hour, and a feature length pilot) will hit screens in the upcoming TV season. The Last Cop won Best Scripted Format at the 2017 International Format Awards at MIPTV in Cannes.
Produced by Spiral International and Dynamo (Narcos), Michel Brown, star of the International Emmy® award winning series Sr. Ávila, has been cast in the lead role.
The series is showrun and directed by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, director and screenwriter Ernesto Contreras (Blue Eyelids, I Dream in Another Language, The Obscure Spring, and El Chapo for Netflix), who has a total of 19 International Film Festival Wins and 9 Nominations.
Telemundo’s pick-up follows the news that Falco Mexico has also been sold to Amazon Prime Video for Latin America.
“We are thrilled to have a unique series like Falco added to our Premium Series™ lineup,” said Luis Silberwasser, President, Telemundo Networks. “It’s been a fantastic creative collaboration with Spiral International and Dynamo, as they produced the adaptation of this hit format.”
Zasha Robles, Executive Producer and Managing Director at Spiral International, said, “It is an honor to be working with Telemundo on our new crime show, and are delighted to have found the perfect broadcast partner in the US. Based in Mexico City, we will pay homage to a rich culture that represents the core audience of Telemundo. Unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, ‘FALCO’ will trigger emotion, nostalgia, and the thrill of a classic crime show tailored to the Latin audience”.
Diego Ramírez Schrempp, Partner at Dynamo, said: “We are very happy to bring this internationally acclaimed format to the US. When adapting the scripts we were careful to keep the unique strength of the original series, while adding a rich local context and texture to the story and characters. I have no doubt that Falco will be another powerful Dynamo product, very much in line with our international premium content strategy.”
In Falco, it’s 1994 in Mexico City, and Alejandro Falco is a reputable policeman with a promising future and a young family. However, his perfect world is shattered when he is shot by a mysterious attacker in the line of duty. With a bullet lodged in his head, Falco falls into a coma – for the next 24 years.
He awakens in 2018 with no memory of what happened, and to a world he doesn’t recognize – including the internet and mobile phones! But far more devastating is the news that his wife has remarried, and the baby daughter he once knew is now a grown woman.
The only thing he has left is his job, and Falco must find a way to start over and rebuild his life. But he just can’t let it go; he has lost too much to not try and find out who did this to him. One way or another, he is going to get answers – and when he does, someone is going to pay.
Red Arrow Studios International has sold the scripted format of Falco / The Last Cop around the world, with successful remake adaptations including 5 seasons of French version Falco on TF1 in France; a record-breaking production for Channel 5 Russia; two seasons and a theatrical movie version in Japan for Hulu and Nippon TV; and productions in the Czech Republic and Estonia.