After Breaking Bad's final episode was aired last Sunday with record U.S. ratings, Sony Pictures Television and Colombian producer Teleset are hoping to hook Spanish-speaking audience in South America with "Metastasis," the Colombian version of Vince Gilligan's Emmy-winning drama, the Hollywood Reporter informed.
"Metástasis" (a reference to metastasizing cancer) follows the lives of Walter Blanco, his wife Cielo (Skyler), partner José Miguel Rosas (Jesse Pinkman) and brother in law and narcotics agent, Henry Navarro (Hank).
According to Cadena Ser, the series will be shot in and around Bogotá, including some of the cities traditional neighborhoods like Teusaquillo and Nicolás de Federman. Sony Pictures Television representatives ensured the series would feature some of Colombia's most beautiful places.
"Breaking Bad is a fantastic series that wasn't widely seen in Latin America, partly because cable doesn't yet have full penetration in the region," said SPT senior vp and managing director of production for Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market, Angelica Guerra. "[But] there is a universality to the story and its characters that we recognized could work very well."
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sony is not working on other foreign versions, although the company has already delivered local versions of "Married...With Children" in several countries and "Everybody Loves Raymond" for the Middle East and Russia.
Although a few minor details will be different, Guerra assured "Breaking Bad" fans the Colombian version will stay true to the original series, since Vince Gilligan, creator of the U.S. series and his crew have been consulted to achieve that. "Motor homes are not popular in Colombia," she said, according to the Hollywood Reporter, "so audiences will see Walter and Jose cooking up their first several batches of methamphetamine in an old, barely drivable school bus."
No premiere date has been announced yet, but some promotional images and a trailer were released today.