SPT: Our projects are aimed at the creativity and not at our owned screens

“Sony Pictures Television’s strategy to consolidate itself as an independent studio allowed us to develop projects more oriented to creativity than to its owned screens” stated Ana Bond, SVP and general director of International Production at SPT Latin America.
Thus, in LA Screenings the company launched several original productions, including Rio Connection (eight episodes), a co-production with Floresta and Globo set in the 70s and it is Sony’s first production in Brazil. “It is an international product in English, with a Brazilian seal, that can compete with any content of global impact” detailed Bond.

Other launches were Código Implacable (10 episodes), A Mexican thriller and the first co-production with The Mediapro Studio, in which Claro video also took part; Reputación Dudosa (eight-episode seasons), a melodrama with comedy, directed by the Mexican Alvaro Curiel; and Tunel del Amor, a dating show developed by Floresta in Brazil that premiered on Multi Show and remains on the top ten of the most-watched on pay TV. Additionally, the black comedy Anatomia, is currently in development, by the creators of Club de Cuervos, and Nosotros los Nobles.

In recent times, SPT accelerated the development of high-budget content and a low or medium number of episodes. However, the TV budget is still a very important part of their business. There are telenovelas in development. “Melodrama continues to be a very important goal. We are working with several writers and new projects will be released” explained Bond.

In fact, Ligeramente Diva, an adaptation of Drop Dead Diva is already being shot between Colombia and Mexico. “It is a fresh, 60-episode melodrama and obviously the adaptation to our culture implied a bit of major surgery to include things that are valuable to us, such as family” mentioned Bond.

The executive also commented that, after the pandemic, there are more productions, demand, and movement than ever, which generates complications when it comes to bringing together actors, and directors and finding the crew with which you want to work.

Squaring agendas, getting the crew, and betting on the right project are the main challenges of the producer. “I think now everyone is a producer, develops, and has a project under their arm. We get many things within that amount of projects and ideas. It is a challenge to bet on the right thing, to discern one idea from another, to navigate the number of ideas and projects that come to us daily.”.