Sponsored message
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Meet Walter Blanco: 'Breaking Bad' Gets Spanish Makeover

Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.

Walter White has bid adieu to TV, but Walter Blanco, now that guy's just getting started. The wildly popular and Emmy-winning AMC show is being remade for Spanish-language audiences, where it will be known as Metastasis, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

We have to note a response to a Twitter posting of the Latin American series' cast of characters. "Esto es real?" Apparently so. If not, THR is channeling The Onion.

The remake's title is both a reference to the main character's cancer and his dangerous side business. As Walt himself once put it, "chemistry is about transformation."

The future meth kingpin (played by Diego Trujillo) now lives in Colombia with his wife Cielo (Skyler) and former-student-turned-partner Jose (Jesse). His DEA brother-in-law is now named Henry Navarro.

"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," Angelica Guerra, Senior VP and Managing Director of Production for Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic market," tells the Hollywood Reporter. "[But] there is a universality to the story and its characters that we recognized could work very well."

The series has been sold to more than 170 territories worldwide, but its subject matter makes it somewhat of a niche show in some countries. In the U.K., only the first season aired on television, the rest has been available thanks to Netflix.

Unlike, say, the many international versions of Ugly Betty, Sony says not to expect a French or Japanese version. They have already done foreign adaptations of other popular series, including a Russian Everybody Loves Raymond and Married … With Children for the Middle East.

Sponsored message

While Guerra says they have consulted with original series creator Vince Gilligan on the remake, a few details will be changed, besides the names, location and language. There's no RV meth lab, for one thing. "Motor homes are not popular in Colombia," she tells 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."

In other remake news, U.K.'s Broadchurch whodunnit series, which stars former Doctor Who David Tennant, will be remade for the U.S., starring... David Tennant, who will use an American accent.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.

Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.

If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible year-end gift today

A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right