THE MAN BEHIND THE BOOM IN SPANISH TELEVISION
An Interview with Portocabo CEO and Executive Producer, Alfonso Blanco
Spanish television is experiencing a boom right now with productions in high demand amongst streaming services and international broadcasters. Some would argue that the seeds were first sewn in 2019 with the release of hit television show Hierro which achieved critical acclaim, winning multiple awards including Best Drama Series at the 7th Feroz Awards – the Spanish equivalent of the Golden Globes. This was a career defining breakout moment for Alfonso Blanco, CEO and Executive Producer of Portocabo, and everything the talented showrunner has touched since then has turned into gold.
A second season of Hierro followed, along with multiple series of other hit shows Rapa and Agua Seca, as well as his most recent success Honor – a Spanish remake of a U.S. Showtime drama that featured Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston. Blanco has also recently become one of the first Galician members of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and has been named one of the 50 most influential leaders in Ibero-American drama. With each show he makes becoming more and more eagerly anticipated, we caught up with the 53-year-old to find out what the secret is behind his success and, more importantly, what is coming next.
Last year saw Portocabo produce a remake of Showtime drama Your Honor which itself was based on the Israeli TV drama Kvodo. What was the most difficult part of the adaptation and how do you strike the balance between paying homage yet putting your own stamp on it?
What drew us to Kvodo was the Israeli format’s plot and underlying theme: ‘How far would you be willing to go to save your child’s life?’ When we pitched our adaptation to Atresmedia, we were keen to keep these key aspects while modifying the plot development of the original series and its American adaptation. In line with this approach, we took the surroundings of a person in conflict with two opposing sides of society (the mafia side linked to big spenders and the drug trafficking side linked to the lower classes) and adapted this conflict to Spain, specifically to Seville, in a rigorous manner based on the reality of the setting. That’s what allowed us to really put our stamp on the series because, despite being a remake, it is imbued with Portocabo’s DNA. We have a close connection to our settings and work hard on our character arcs.
A hallmark of Portocabo’s previous series has been in its international co-production with Hierro being filmed for both Spain and France and Auga Seca being set in Spain and Portugal. How do you choose your locations and what are the benefits and challenges of taking this approach? There are various ways of creating a co-production – and the series you mention are two very different examples. In the case of Hierro (co-produced with France), we wanted to choose a setting so unique that it would be able to transcend the national sphere. The island of El Hierro is so extraordinary that we thought the European viewer would perceive it as a unique territory that was not tied to any borders, thereby separating it from the national aspect of recording in Madrid or Paris, for example.
Auga Seca follows a different co-production model. The story naturally takes place in two territories, specifically in the port area of Vigo and Lisbon. We wanted to create a story related to maritime traffic that would establish a link between the two territories. This co-production was more organic, shot between Lisbon and Vigo, with a narrative arc that practically created one single territory – and a police procedural plot that braided everything together.
You’ve worked with some of the biggest names in Spanish film and television such as Javier Camara (Talk to Her, Truman) and screenwriter Fran Araujo and Pepe Coira (Rapa, Hierro). Does this create any additional pressure on the projects to succeed?
One of the things that has benefited Portocabo the most in recent years is the fact that we have been able to tap into the finest acting and creative talent (both in terms of scriptwriting and directing). We have worked with some of the most talented professionals in Spain, which is testament to the popularity and effectiveness of our products. As for our content, we have a clear vision to tell stories with a heavy dose of reality and an intimate connection to their setting. As this is a very appealing formula for screenwriters, we have also had the pleasure of working with great talent such as Pepe Coira and Fran Araujo, the number one scriptwriting duo in Spanish fiction, helping to expand and increase our company’s professional prestige within the sector.
You’ve also worked on multiple projects with the likes of Mónica López (Rapa, Hierro) and Darío Grandinetti (Honor, Hierro). How does this pre-existing relationship help your productions?
As we are very rigorous when it comes to selecting actors to play our characters, we have developed wonderful relationships with various professionals such as Mónica López, who was first cast in Hierro and then in Rapa. The same can be said for Darío Grandinetti, who first worked with us on Hierro and then on Honor. It’s all about good talent management. After all, they’re elite professionals with incredible acting skills and great human qualities, which truly makes them exceptional. When an actor demonstrates that they have the requisite talent, the willingness to cooperate and humanity, we are eager work with them again.
With Portocabo’s productions gaining international plaudits, have you seen any correlations between the recent success of other foreign language productions such as Roma, Parasite and Everything Everywhere All At Once with a growing appreciation from an international audience?
The advent of streaming platforms has resulted in more content being shown and consumed. Films and series from other countries are now consumed more naturally. Spanish audiences watch series from Korea, Mexico, Scandinavia, and Turkey, while Spanish content has also travelled around the world – from the well-documented success of La casa de papel to our own series such as Hierro and Rapa, which can be viewed in almost a hundred countries. This is the consequence of a globalised context in which viewers consume content without paying attention to its origin. This phenomenon has also benefited our series that already had an international appeal. We have always worked for global markets, so we were ready for the advent of streaming platforms and our content was ideally positioned. Now, from a small corner of Europe, we are able to produce series that can be seen anywhere in the world.
What are you currently working on and can we expect any new seasons of current hit shows such as Hierro, Auga Seca or Honor in the not[1]too-distant future?
We are currently finishing the third and final season of Rapa (Movistar Plus+). We will not be making any second seasons this year, because we are working on several new lines of content, including a co-production with Germany that we will start filming in the coming months. We have new content for Movistar Plus+, one of the most ambitious Spanish-language projects to emerge in recent years. We will also be focusing more strongly on comedy and kids live action – two lines of content that we have developed fairly regularly in recent years. We will be releasing the film +Cuñados later this year and developing more comedy projects for cinema and television. As a genre, kids live action practically does not exist in Europe, so we hope to make a new season of Los Argonautas y la Moneda de Oro (rtve/clan) as well as other types of live action content for children.