Brothers Lucia and Nicolas Puenzo, and Pablo Fendrik, the Argentine helming trio behind Pyramide-sold feature/TV miniseries “Cromo,” is teaming again to co-direct sci-fi miniseries project “Viaje al unico.”
Set up at Buenos Aires-based production house Historias Cinematograficas, run by the Puenzo family, “Viaje al unico” marks directors’ TV follow-up to “Cromo,” which received its Latin American premiere Nov. 13 in a special screening at Los Cabos Intl. Film Festival’s new section, Cabos TV.
Paris-based independent producer Lucero Garzon is also attached to produce “Viaje al unico.” “Cromo” editor Misael Bustos will co-direct the series.
Structured as a 40-minute 12-episode TV series, the plot kicks-off when a space probe discovers oxygen and great possibilities of intelligent life on a planet 150-year trip. Then, a group of elite scientists propose to bring in an exact replica of a space ship six children of diferent races, three men and three women, whitout any physical or emotional contact with the outside world.
Once the children turn 17, already trained, they would be launched into space. At one point of the trip, they must procreate a new generation of crew, who in turn will breed another generation. This would be the generation that finally would reach the new planet.
Co-written by Lucia Puenzo and Sergio Bizzio, TV series bases on the same-title novel penned by Bizzio, also author of “Cinismo,” the novel whose film adaptation, directed by Lucia Puenzo, became transgender drama “XXY,” which won Cannes 2007 Critics’ Week Award.
“Viaje al ultimo” will pay attention to the human relationships among the six young astronauts, their alliances and hostilities, love affairs, personal preferences and old embers, Lucia Puenzo said.
The series will roll by the end of 2016 in a Buenos Aires-set studio where Historias Cinematograficas is currently moving its headquarters.
“At the heart of ‘Viaje al unico’ rests the idea of a group of teens from different races traveling to space. We will look for young actors from different breeds and everyone will talk his own language,” she said.
Launched by Oscar-winner Luis Puenzo (“The Official Story”), Historias Cinematograficas prodco’s most inmediate project will be to shoot in February and March Nicolas Puenzo’s feature debut, futuristic western “Los ultimos,” a co-production with France’s Pyramide and Chile’s Demente co-penned by Lucia and Nicolas Puenzo, Luis Puenzo’s sons.
Lucia Puenzo, one of Latin America’s most important distaff filmmakers, told Variety that shortly after filming “Los ultimos” she will travel to Paris to pre-produce her French-language feature adaptation of Amelie Nothomb’s novel “Barb Bleue,” a new co-production with Pyramide, which Lucia has co-written with Sergio Bizzio.
