Salma Hayek
It makes for more good news about future Latino-themed prime-time shows:
Editor Nellie Vaneera over at Deadline Hollywood had some interesting news last week–some that bodes well for Latino Hollywood.
Last week we heard that ABC was working with Jenni Rivera on a single-Latino-mom comedy/drama. Now it’s reported that Salma Hayek, Silvio Horta and Mark Gordon are working with ABC on Bastards, another comedy drama–this one about “a colorful Cuban-American family who have their lives turned upside down when it’s revealed that the family patriarch had a child with the family maid over 25 years ago. Now his wife will do anything to protect her children’s inheritance and prevent her family’s deep dark secrets from ever seeing the light of day.”
Silvio Horta
Hayek isn’t new to the TV biz; she was one of the driving forces behind Ugly Betty, also at ABC–arguably one of the best and most successful representation of Latinos on TV in recent years. The idea itself has been kicking around awhile, but Horta–who worked with Hayek on Betty–is a new addition, upping the odds that we will ultimately see the show get a prime time shot. Deadline quoted him as saying, “I immediately sparked to the concept—it was fun and juicy and had the opportunity for both a lot of salacious situations and humor as well as a lot of heart and emotions, hitting that sweet spot I like to write.”
Latinos have come this close many times in the recent past. In fact, Horta himself was involved in the Jennifer Lopez “light drama” project over at Fox that centered on the interconnected lives of three Latino sisters. That project stayed in development for quite a while–right through this year’s ‘pitch’ season—but never made it to pilot. And another part of this particular production team has an iron in the fire at CBS as well: a “reimagining” of The Cisco Kid, which also may or may not go anywhere.
Development isn’t really “commitment”–quite–but it’s still a positive sign that all the networks are seeing the value of Latino programming, over and above simply (and successfully) adding Latino actors and characters into existing properties. We’ll keep you inform as development developments…uh, develop.
