Spain’s Versus Bows TV Fiction Production With End-Of-The-World Comedy ‘Día Cero’
By Emiliano De Pablos
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — Spanish independent producer-distributor Versus Entertainment is dipping its toe into TV fiction production with high-concept comedy project “Día Cero.”
Co-penned by David Sainz, star-scribe of popular web series “Malviviendo,” and actor-writer Enrique Lojo (“Serramoura”), “Día Cero” on an end of the world hat doesn’t happen how that impacts a group of people. Versus founder Alejandro Miranda, executive producer on films such as Rodrigo Cortés’ Sundance hit “Buried,” produces the TV series, with Teresa Segura at Seville-based Diffferent Entertainment and Sin Sentido’s Rafael Portela as co-producers.
Designed as a half-hour, eight-episode TV show, “Día Cero” is set the day after the end of the world doesn’t happen. Conflicts experienced by the characters in the series arise from what happened in a period of 253 days, between the announcement of the end and the moment when it’s confirmed that the world continues its course.
The project will be presented at Conecta Fiction ‘s 2nd Pitch Copro Series, the TV drama co-production firum running June 18-21 in Spain’s Santiago de Compostela. Budgeted at €4.4 million ($5.2 million), of which 10% is already covered by Versu own funding, “Día Cero” is scheduled to roll in 2019, probably in the Canary Islands.
At , the producers will looking for international and Spanish TV broadcasters and co-production partnerships. Targeting young, trendy audiences, the comedy unfolds in a world packed with characters who’ve make bad decisions and feel forced to face them.
“The series tackles issues and characters’ universal dilemmas. Their desires, frustrations, problems and way of dealing with them are recognizable for an international audience, which will be easily reflected in and identify with the series’ plot,” said Alejandro Miranda.
“Comedy is the best TV genre to tell this dramatic story. It will be raw TV comedy, closer to our online TV projects than to conventional Spanish TV fictions,” said David Sainz, creator of the Diffferent Entertainment-produced web series “Malviviendo,” which has generated more than 85 million online views since 2008.
