CANNES Belinda, one of Mexicos biggest popstars and a star of Netflix hit Welcome to Eden, is attached to headline The Red Diamond, the latest project from Erik Barmacks L.A. and Mexico City-based Wild Sheep Content.
One of the fastest-growing of production companies in international markets, Wild Sheep has a production alliance with The Mediapro Studio.
The Red Diamond is also set up at Mexico Citys Wild Sheep Content Latin America, headed by producer Jimena Rodrguez who produced 3 Idiots, the second highest-grossing Mexican movie of 2017. Rodrguez was instrumental in helping bringing Belinda to the project.
A six-part series, The Red Diamond ticks multiple boxes which are keys to success in the current international TV scene.
It adapts hot IP: the same-title book series, described by Barmack as a popular, sexy action thriller, from Angy Skay, one of Spains most popular romance novelists.
Theres a huge demand for escapist thriller content in Mexico and Colombia with shows like La Reina del Sur, Who Killed Sara? and Plpito dominating the streaming charts, Barmack argued.
Who Killed Sara?is a melodrama wrapped in a thriller, Fremantles Manuel Mart has observed. By the same count, The Red Diamond is romance wrapped in an action thriller, Barmack argued. Its an interesting genre that is kind of becoming a global phenomenon, he added, citing the BBCs The Bodyguard, Netflixs Night Agent and Amazon Prime Videos Citadel. The Red Diamond, however, is more like romance and fun and action all at once, he said.
Billed as a sexy revenge thriller, The Red Diamond stars Belinda as Micaela Bravo who escapes her family assassins as a child. As soon as she turns 18, she leaves her beloved grandmothers home to begin building the influential and illegal Red Diamond club, to make her the most powerful woman in Mexico City for one sole purpose: To wreak revenge Alejandro Lpez, kingpin of the worlds largest assassin network, who ordered her parents hit.
Her plan gets complicated, however, when she falls in love with the dashing Jack Garca, a hitman Lopez hired to kill her.
The Red Diamond is the fourth title based on Spanish IP which Wild Sheep has transferred from Spain to Mexico after Invitation to Murder, a Netflix Mexico original based on a Carmen Posadas novel starring Manolo Cardona, Regina Blandn and Maribel Verd.
Announced November, two new Spanish crime novels El Susurro del Angel and Pequeas Infamias added to Wild Sheep Contents burgeoning line in Mexico-set, star-studded, character-driven crime thrillers.
I just think big IP is going to win the day. But were not making big IP in the U.S. Were skipping the U.S. entirely and going to the markets that are most appropriate for this type of content, which I think is really interesting, Barmack toldVariety.
The challenge is to make shows which are going to be big in both Spain and Mexico, he said. Here, Belindas attachment to star is key,
The Red Diamond, is a slice of Spanish IP. Belinda has 16 million Instagram followers. If you think about her social media following objectively, she is one of the biggest musicians in the world right now and shes Mexican and Spanish and Belinda has acted in a big Spanish Netflix hit show, Bienvenidos a Eden, Barmack said.
So the show is Spanish IP being presented through somebody whos Mexican and Spanish, whos huge in both markets and its also a new sort of thing for Mexico, said Barmack. I cant think of other production companies or packaging companies that have done projects based on Spanish books that are selling in Mexico over the last year.