March 7, 2019 - 10:28 AMT
Netflix acquires rights to Márquez’s "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

Netflix is to adapt Gabriel García Márquez’s literary classic "One Hundred Years of Solitude" into a Spanish-language series.

The SVOD service has acquired the rights to develop the novel, which was first published in 1967 and has sold over 50M copies.

García Márquez’s sons Rodrigo Garcia and Gonzalo García Barcha will serve as executive producers on the series, which will be filmed mainly in Colombia.

The book, delving deep into magical realism, tells the story of the multi-generational Buendia family, whose patriarch Jose Arcadio Buendia founded Macondo, a fictional town in Colombia.

It marks the first time that García Márquez’s book will be adapted for screen as the author, who died in 2014, refused to sell the film rights.

WME, attorney Shelley Surpin, and the Agencia Literaria Carmen Balcells represented the author’s estate in the deal.

“For decades, our father was reluctant to sell the film rights to Cien Años de Soledad because he believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film, or that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice,” said Garcia. “But in the current golden age of series, with the level of talented writing and directing, the cinematic quality of content, and the acceptance by worldwide audiences of programs in foreign languages, the time could not be better to bring an adaptation to the extraordinary global viewership that Netflix provides. We are excited to support Netflix and the filmmakers in this venture, and eager to see the final product.”

“We are incredibly honored to be entrusted with the first filmed adaptation of "One Hundred Years of Solitude", a timeless and iconic story from Latin America that we are thrilled to share with the world,” added Francisco Ramos, Vice President, Spanish Language Originals for Netflix. “We know our members around the world love watching Spanish-language films and series and we feel this will be a perfect match of project and our platform.”