Pablo Trapero, El Estudio Set ‘Carancho,’ ‘Galimberti’ Series (EXCLUSIVE)

MADRID — Argentina’s Pablo Trapero, one of the driving forces behind the renaissance of Latin American cinema, is teaming with El Estudio on two ambitious TV series: an English-language U.S. remake of his 2010 hit movie “Carancho” and true-facts inspired bioseries “Galimberti.”

Based out of Los Angeles, Mexico City and Madrid, El Estudio – a major independent TV and movie production house founded by former Sony exec Diego Suárez, Canana head Pablo Cruz, and top Spanish producer Enrique Lopez Lavigne – launched at last month’s Berlin Film Festival.

Trapero and EL Estudio are represented by CAA.

“Carancho” comes second in a line of movies – after 2008’s Cannes competition entry “Lion’s Den,” but anticipating “The White Elephant” and 2016’s Venice best director winner “The Clan” – which established Trapero as one Latin America’s masters of crossover movies, mixing the social critique of Latin American art cinema with more broader audience appeal.

Now put into development, “Carancho” the series will transfer its plot of traffic accident insurance scams from the grimy streets of Buenos Aires to the Latino community of East Los Angeles. Latter is described by El Estudio as a “lawless city, almost like in a Western, where crime, money, pain, survival and love live together in a violent and voluptuous fashion.”

The “Carancho” series will be shot in English. Exact plot details of the U.S series are yet to be announced. The original element mixed elements ripe for expansion into a drama series, however: One is its own redolent world, depicted with a documentary-style realism, a corruption-sodden run-down Buenos Aires with a tawdry hospital and the stark, cold neon-lit streets, cafes and gas-stations around it.

“Carancho” the movie is also a noirish thriller building to a mercilessly violent climax; and, above all, it is the love story of two characters, played memorably by Ricardo Darin and Martina Gusmán: Sosa, an insurance scam artist with enough moral conscience to retain a sense of nobility; Luján, a hospital doctor, just in from the country, who knows Sosa’s trouble, but is too much in love to walk away.

“Galimberti” depicts the extraordinary, mercurial life of Rodolfo Galimberti (1947-2002), a left-wing urban guerrilla in the 1970s who kidnapped the heir to Argentina’s richest family fortune; then, in democracy, an intelligence service operative, as well as entrepreneur and member of Argentina’s 1990s’ jet set.

Trapero is attached to showrun the series and direct some episodes.

The “Galimberti” bioseries portrays “a disturbing protagonist of Argentine and Latin America politics down three decades of adventure, misery, betrayals and blood,” El Estudio commented in a written statement.

“His lucidity, calculation, and opportunism allowed him to surf with extraordinary ease the outrageous and painful ups and downs – political, economic – of a whole continent,” it added.

“I’ve known Pablo Cruz, Enrique López and Diego Suárez for years. I worked in fact with Diego on ‘La Quietud’ when he was a studio executive at Sony, and for years we’ve had the idea of developing ‘Carancho’ as a series for the U.S.,” said Trapero.

He added: “I’ve also had the idea for years, after reading Marcelo Larraquy y Roberto Caballero’s novel, of telling the story of Galimberti’s life. For both projects, I can’t think of a better traveling companion for these adventures than El Estudio.”

Trapero has indicated that he aims to make “Galimberti” is something of the style of the cocaine-trade themed “ZeroZeroZero,” which he co-directed, referring to “Galimberti’s” cinematic style and narrative pace and the storytelling – of how Galimberti’s political actions and ideology mixed with crime and business as much as cocaine does.

“Pablo is an incredible talented storyteller with a unique voice and an exquisite vision. He is the definition of the modern international filmmaker with a wide-ranging experience at both the studio level and the auteur universe. The kind of talent El Estudio was born to work with,” said Diego Suarez Chialvo, CEO, El Estudio.