Gabo-heads (Gab-lins?), rejoice: the trailer for the upcoming mini-series adaptation of the Márquez masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has officially dropped. And though we’ve been burned before by attempts to put the master’s works on celluloid (Love in the Time of Cholera, anyone?), there seems to be room for cautious optimism.
For one thing, the 16-episode series is allegedly one of the most ambitious projects ever filmed in Latin America. But readers should be especially pleased to hear that the teaser opens with a nod to the source material. Namely, a solemn voiceover of the novel’s famous first line: Many years ago, when he faced the firing squad…etc. (For a lovely close read of this sentence, allow me to point you to this piece from Claire Adam.)
Blessed by the estate and filmed, in Spanish, on location in Colombia, the project also looks to have the appropriate scope for a multigenerational epic. Per Deadline, five writers wrote the series: José Rivera, Natalia Santa, Camila Brugés, María Camila Arias and Albatrós González. And two directors—Alex García López and Laura Mora—steer the ship.
Of course, more isn’t always more. In 2007, Roget Ebert wondered if Gabo’s novels could ever stand a translation to the silver screen. “If you extract the story without the language,” he wrote, “you are left with dust and bones but no beating heart.” Thriller pacing—plus the infamous old-age make-up turtled over poor Javier Bardem—doomed Love in the Time of Cholera to a lukewarm-to-wrathful critical response. So my fingers stay crossed that this mini-series will let its truly perfect source material breathe, and age naturally.
But you can calibrate your own expectations. Here’s the trailer, in all its glory.
