Starring “The Lovely Bones’” Stanley Tucci and “Da 5 Bloods’” Clarke Peters and produced by Movistar Plus in association with AMC Studios, “La Fortuna” is set to roll out in half the major distribution territories in the world.
First up is Germany, where Sky will air the TV debut of “The Others” director Alejandro Amenábar from Dec. 24.
A U.S. release date, on AMC Networks premium service AMC Plus, has been set for Jan. 20.
Before then, AMC Plus will begin airing the series in Latin America (Jan. 16) and in the U.K. (Jan. 17). SBS will air the series in Australia in 2022. Movistar Plus began airing the series in Spain in September. Germany’s Beta Film, a strategic partner of Movistar Plus, is handling international sales.
The only drama series selected for September’s San Sebastian Festival where it received its world premiere, “La Fortuna” weighs in as a modern-day adventure tale. Frank Wild, an American treasure hunter, locates the wreck of La Fortuna, a frigate sunk by the Royal Navy in 1804 off the Atlantic coast of Spain whose wreck contains the biggest sunken treasure trove in history.
When Wild ships the booty to his home base in Atlanta, Alex Ventura (Alvaro Mel), a young rookie diplomat is charged by Spain’s government to win a legal battle fought through U.S. courts for the treasure. He is aided by Jonas Pierce (Peters), reputedly the world’s best maritime rights lawyer.
Produced in collaboration with Spain’s Mod Pictures whose credits include Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” and Amenabar’s own “Agora,” “La Fortuna” builds as a culture clash thriller, not so much between Spain and the U.S. — though this yields some of the series’ comedy — but between two colliding world views embodied in Wild and Peters: “Individual, egotistical interest and a reasonable honest person who thinks of the common good,” as Amenabar explained at a San Sebastian press conference.
“Wilds and Peters exist everywhere,” Tucci maintained in San Sebastián – one reason for the series’ growing global distribution.