Arturo Pérez-Reverte, creator of The Dragon, spoke about how the ambitious Televisa-Univision series came about and his vision for it, in a video promoted by the US Hispanic network.
On September 30, Univision will premiere one of the most anticipated series of the year in Latin America and US Hispanic: The Dragon, an ambitious project through which Televisa and Univision hope to shock the region.
Starring Sebastián Rulli and Renata Notni, it’s based on a story by Spain’s Arturo Perez-Reverte, with scriptes by Esther Feldman.
And in a video showcased by Univision, the talented Spanish writer remembers what it was like to create the ambitious series.
According to the writer, the origin for The Dragon dates back to a meeting in Madrid four years ago between him and Patricio Wills, who had already worked together on the adaptation of The Queen of the South.
“Patricio was saying that he wanted a new story. And I suggested a story about a third-generation drug-dealer. How the grandson of a drug-dealer would act when inheriting an empire. I thought this was a good place to start this story. He liked it and said he wanted to do it as a series. I thought it was interesting, because that had never been done,” he said.
“I decided it was going to be a kid raised in Japan, an industry and finance boy, with more knowledge about computer and economy than guns and borders,” he added.
It tells the story of Miguel Garza, known as The Dragon and played by Sebastian Rulli, who inherits a narco empire. And unlike his predecessors, he relies more on the world of finance and computer science to maintain and expand its cartel.
The series, Univision said, will not lack action, intrigue and passion. Its filming, in fact, was made in real locations in Japan, Spain, the US and Mexico and demanded eight months of production.
The series creation process, initially announced in 2016, also required several years of development and hundreds of auditions.
The Dragon is a co-production of Televisa, Univision and W Studios, with production by Lemon Studios. He began filming in November 2018 and his recordings extended for eight months.
According to Univision, it is “the most important series of modern television” and according to Billy Rovzar, producer and co-founder of Lemon Studios, it is the “most ambitious project in the history of open TV in Mexico.”
