Patricio Wills ProduPrimetime
El Gallo de Oro (10×60’) has been a significant project in Patricio Wills’ career. Thirty years ago, the president of W Studios produced the story written by Juan Rulfo in his native Colombia with great success; now, he is repeating the feat in Mexico for ViX with the resources and tools available and with a star such as the international Mexican actress and singer Lucero.
Wills told Ríchard Izarra in #PRODUprimetime about the challenges he faced. He mentioned the acquisition of literary rights and enough funding. “It can’t be done in a studio or become a novel. It needs that dusty tone that Rulfo brings into his stories, narratives, and books. Rulfo was also a photographer with some beautiful photography books published, where you can breathe that atmosphere. And, suddenly, ViX appeared. When I brought the project to Pierluigi Gazzolo, CEO of ViX, he told me: ‘Let’s do it, come on, let’s get the money.’ And we managed to get the rights and raise a budget,” he pointed out.
To play La Caponera, they thought of a great actress, well-known, very Mexican, and who could sing. “Suddenly, the name Lucero came up. But Lucero had retired from TV. Making Lucero come back was a big deal. But afterward, a friend – Alejandro Benítez – introduced her to me. I told her I would be her representative, that no story in the world suited better with which l return to TV, playing a strong and atypical role, and involving singing, México and Rulfo. The meeting took 15 minutes,” said Wills.
“El Gallo de Oro is one of the best projects I have ever done,” Wills said. “I don’t dare say it is the best because there will be others. I never imagined that a platform like ViX of Televisa and Univisión would be financing it, having Lucero, or José Ron and Plutarco Haza, and with music. Or being able to put together a large platform like Vix strong in Mexico, the US, and Latin America, an actress like Lucero; actors such as Dionisio Pinzón and José Ron; a director like Chava Cartas; support production people, such as Jorge Sastoque and Carlos Bardasano, in particular. I feel proud to lead this project. We have a huge product with Latin American and global projection, which is essentially Mexican for all Spanish speakers worldwide.”
Asked about Lucero, Wills described her as “an injustice from God. She has it all.”
Despite producing many projects in almost 50 years of career, Wills’s credits are only on a few. “Just when I get involved in something out of the ordinary. Not in my capacity as an executive or as president of W Studios or of RTI Television at the time. But when I get involved as a producer, getting dirty working in the daily scenes, that is when I usually like to include my name. My credits were in Pasión de Gavilanes 20 years ago because it was a story I put a lot of effort into filming on Telemundo; in La Reina del Sur; recently, Travesuras de la Niña Mala by Vargas Llosa, and now I am happy to have my name in El Gallo de Oro.”
He also explained the term ‘serielas,’ which describes projects like El Gallo de Oro. “A ‘seriela’ is something with a melodrama and a love story of a telenovela but the ingredients of a series in terms of length, 20 to 25 chapters, no more so it does not entail investing seven months of your life. El Gallo de Oro is a ‘seriela that has that narrative style. Regarding the length of the chapters, we will see how it goes; it will depend on the public reception. Its narrative style and the story of love and heartbreak feature a melodrama. But the production, the way it is made, and how the conflicts are told are from a traditional series. So this terrifying term, ‘seriela,’ absolutely describes it,” he concluded.
Watch #PRODUprimetime with Patricio Wills, President of W Studios
