Argentina ‘s Pampa Films and Lungo Films are teaming up with U.S.-based Bravura Media to produce a series based on the novel “Fordlandia, a Dark Paradise” by Argentine scribe, Eduardo Sguiglia.
The series project, titled “Fordlandia,” is among the 10 series pitches to be presented at this week’s Iberseries & Platino Industria’sCo-Production and Financing Forum in Madrid.
The series is based on a little-known event that began in 1928 when automobile tycoon Henry Ford who, fed up with the rubber supply shortage for tires, opted to start producing them in the Amazon, launching a messianic project dubbed “Fordlandia.”
After a year, the company failed to take off as it faced a critical shortage of local labor for its plantations. Buarque, a Brazilian adventurer, was hired to address the various issues. But the jungle, which Ford hoped to tame and colonize became a hotbed of recurring conflicts that only invited madness and violence.
The clash of cultures and an inevitable ecological catastrophe led to an epic struggle to prevent Ford’s project from descending into total chaos. Buarque and his cohorts soon realized that the only logical recourse was to save their own skins.
Showrunner Juan Pablo Buscarini’s noted: “The events that took place in the Brazilian city of Fordlandia, between the late 1920s and the early years after the great crisis of the ’30s, have been notably overlooked by content producers for global mass audiences.”
Realizing this led him and his production company to acquire the rights to Sguiglia’s novel, convinced of the high mass audience potential for a mini-series imbued with the spirit of adventure and action characteristic of a great Joseph Conrad novel.
Plans are to shoot on location in Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina. According to Buscarini, the actual location where Fordlandia once stood is now a deserted village. “It is not specifically the ideal place to replicate the time period depicted in the series, although we do plan to film in its natural surroundings,” he said, adding that its cast will be international, ideally with renowned Brazilian and English-language talent.
Citing their previous experience with series “El grito de las mariposas,” now onStar+/Hulu, Buscarini is confident that they have the capacity and experience to film in the depths of South America and lure notable talent to the project.
The timeline they’ve outlined includes an eight-month development phase (Nov. 2023 – June 2024), a 2-month pre-production phase (July to August 2024), and a 3-month filming period (September to November 2024). Post-production will occupy the entire first half of 2025, with the series slated for delivery in July 2025.
He also pointed out that, while the series may seem ambitious, “the experience of our producers and our location optimization strategy across three countries (Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina) where our production company has a proven track record of delivering high-quality content, positions this project as an excellent investment opportunity for international streaming platforms or distributors.”
