Patricio Wills de W Studios
The new version of Los Ricos También Lloran (60×60′), by W Studios for TelevisaUnivision, was a “delicate” challenge where it had to, on the one hand, “protect the original story” and on the other hand, “add something so it wasn’t a new version of something old,” said Patricio Wills, president of W Studios. The adaptation of the iconic telenovela debuted with a two-hour episode this Tuesday the 6th at 9pm on Univision in the US.
“Messing with Los Ricos También Lloran (The Rich Also Cry) is like messing with the Mexican flag, with tacos, with the Mexican anthem. It is something very delicate because it is an icon, perhaps the TV icon of Mexico and Latin America, it’s touching something that has an intrinsic value in the Mexican and Latin American popular imagination. But we made the decision to go for it and we are very happy with the results,” said Wills.
Among the new elements, they included situations regarding what happens nowadays in families around power.
“The other gigantic challenge was putting together a casting because Verónica Castro left an indelible imprint on the world, that memory is very difficult to forget, but Claudia (Martín) did wonderfully well because she respected the essence of the character, her popularity, adding a lot of new elements,” Wills pointed out.
The production was ambitious. “In one of the largest studios of Televisa we really built the corporate offices. That’s where the whole telenovela takes place. There were no small sets that were changed. Other locations included the hacienda, which is wonderful, and a heliport. And of course the love story. Sebastián Rulli gave us a masterful interpretation of that ambivalent character, who is very rich, but he has issues,” he said.
Preliminary metrics for the two-hour debut of Los Ricos También Lloran aired by Univision estimate that 2.7 million People 2+ watched part or all of the broadcast.
Wills added that in telenovelas they are preparing a project for Las Estrellas in Mexico that has not yet been announced, “I think we will do it in a month”, and in series, for ViX+ they have already begun the production of La Mujer del Diablo and Travesuras de la Chica Mala. “Very complex because it includes several countries.” He also mentioned that from La Fábrica de Sueños, “there are a couple of projects that Televisa has rolling”.
