Mixing it up
Mercedes Reincke, content development manager at Argentinian broadcaster Telefe, explains how thriller El Regreso de Lucas (The Return of Lucas) is shaking up its traditional telenovela formula. It’s the story of every parent’s worst nightmare – their child disappearing, never to be seen again. Only in El Regreso de Lucas (The Return of Lucas), the eponymous missing boy reappears as an adult 20 years later – or so he claims. Therein starts a thrilling drama in which a family question whether this man really is their lost son and brother, while Lucas’s sister Catalina becomes attracted to him, sowing the seeds for an impossible love story set across 60 episodes. Ana María Orozco and Salvador Del Solar play mother Elena and father Reinaldo, alongside Pablo Martínez as Lucas, Macarena Achaga as Catalina and Sergio Gjurinovic as Juan. The first coproduction between Argentina’s Telefe and América TV in Peru, it has already been sold to UniMas in the US, Mega in Chile and Ecuavisa in Ecuador. The show debuted in Peru earlier this month, recording a 37% share. Here, Mercedes Reincke, content development manager at Telefe, tells DQ how this coproduction broke new boundaries in terms of casting, locations and storytelling. DQ: What was the inspiration for the series? Mercedes Reincke: There were multiple inspirations for the script. We had a concept we wanted to work with, which was ‘a parent’s worst fear.’ I told a personal story to my team about my mother – that she didn’t want to take … Continue reading Mixing it up
