Leading Spanish indie Plano a Plano has snagged TV adaptation rights to “Lejos de Luisiana” by Luz Gabás, last year’s winner of Spain’s prestigious Planeta Award.
Plano a Plano acquired the rights from Book & Film Rights, the Editorial Planeta division which oversees local and international audiovisual adaptation deals as well as translation rights in international markets.
Since 1952, Planeta has bestowed an annual reward to outstanding unpublished Spanish-language works with the largest endowment worldwide, one million Euros.
Gabás’ acclaimed debut novel “Palm Trees in the Snow” (“Palmeras en la nieve”) was successfully adapted to the screen in 2015, winning two Goya, translated to multiple languages and grossing $18.3 million in Spain.
“Lejos de Luisiana” (translated to “Far from Louisiana”) follows a love story between a Native American and a French Creole Woman in Mississippi at the end of the 18th century. It takes place over four decades during the time when France cedes parts of the Mississippi to Spain in 1763 until the U.S. buys Louisiana in 1803. Their romance is set against this backdrop where the French are rebelling against the Spaniards and Native Indians are warring against the colonials who in turn are fighting for their independence from Great Britain.
“In such turbulent times, Suzette Girard and Ischate, an Indian of the Kaskaskia tribe, will fight their own battle: to preserve their love from the threats of the world in which they live,” the synopsis goes. The Mississippi, a key river in the topography and landscape of the American South, “becomes the guiding thread of the novel and also the backbone of everything that happens in it,” according to Plano a Plano.
For its TV adaptation, Plano a Plano plans to focus on the international scope and mix of cultures and nationalities that Gabás delicately expands on in the novel.
Led by César Benítez, the company has previously adapted other novels for television such as “Valeria,” “Un cuento perfecto” and “Cicatriz.”
One of Spain’s top TV producers, Plano a Plano is behind major prime time hits as Mediaset España’s crime auctioned “El Príncipe” and Atresmedia’s culture clash comedy “Down Below,” which dominated Spanish primetime ratings mid last decade. It also made a splash on Netflix from 2020 with erotic thriller “Toy Boy.”
Over the last few years, it has begun building a portfolio of international productions such as “Cicatriz,” a high-end action thriller based on Juan Gómez-Jurado’s bestseller, which is being co-produced by Plano a Plano with Mexico’s Dopamine and pan-European company, the Asacha Media Group.