Colombian Streamer Series Powerhouse Fidelio Develops Mexico-Romania Crime Drama, Unifies Units (EXCLUSIVE)
Having forged strategic co-production alliances for film and TV with Gaumont, Spain’s Planeta and Amor y Lujo, Colombia’s Fidelio, one of the quickest growing production houses in Latin America, has launched development on a Mexico and Romania-set crime drama.
The move comes as it is also unites its four international units into a single entity, the first steps in the growth of a new and powerful regional entity with strong international ambitions.
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As strong IP ownership becomes ever more important, Fidelio’s scaling up looks an essential move in order to remain a competitive enterprise.
Unifying its branches in Mexico, Canada, Colombia and Switzerland is another step, building the scale and ambition of the indie production company.
Consolidating this expansion, Fidelio has initiated development on a series that calls for one in Latin America and another in Eastern Europe. Based on exhaustive research and publication, the show, whose development is being lead by Mauricio Leiva Cock, screenwriter of “Capital Roar” and scribe-helmer of movie “The Night of the Beast” has found an unusual partner: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Rather than optioning the rights for its report, the companies have pacted longer-term synergies whereby the Project is actively involved in development of a scripted drama which will offer constant insight on the complexities of the organized crime world.
The yet-to-be-titled rambunctious story of the Riviera Maya Gang loks set to serve as a reminder to the viewer that life is often stranger than fiction.
Its story spans across the globe from Romania to the beaches of Mexico, involving family clans, betrayal, ATM fraud, and a lot of journalistic investigation. The series’ complexity underscores Fidelio’s growing ambitions.
“We know that this could potentially be a big show in the sense of scale. Our partners at the OCCRP want to make it trans-continental, for the story to be told from different perspectives,” Leiva-Cock told Variety.
He added: “We want to go to Rumania, Mexico, the U.S., Brazil, first maintaining development at Fidelio and OCCRP and then probably finding partners that can give us the muscle to make this story how it should be told.”
The series looks set to explore the social conditions that pushed Romanian men – and women – to create a crime empire in a post-Soviet Union Romania of punk and heavy metal, a breeding ground for the future mafia.
Currently working on over 120 investigative stories a year, the OCCRP motto, “It takes a Network to fight a Network,” has translated into an organization with a growing cross-border infrastructure
“We realized early on that crime is a commodity. You see the same criminal model,. If a criminal scheme works in Madrid, be absolutely sure that you’ll find the same scheme in Rome, in New York, in Caracas, everywhere,” said Paul Radu, OCCRP co-founder.
He added: “If a crime works, it will be repeated over and over again as a criminal model by criminal groups that travel and cooperate across borders.” The unique collaboration broadens the growth models of both Fidelio and the OCCRP as they look for new frontiers.
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