Interview
Calinos Entertainment
CALINOS PRESENTS TURKISH VERSION OF ‘THIS IS US’ José Luis Gascue, EVP of International Sales at Calinos Entertainment
‘Better Together’, the Turkish version of ‘This Is Us’, is one of Calinos Entertainment’s big new titles for the international market, as revealed by José Luis Gascue, EVP of International Sales, to ttv. By Gonzalo Larrea
@GonzaloLarrea
A
s ‘Woman’ continues to flourish in the international market, Calinos Entertainment is already beginning to look to the future, with the addition of new titles to its distribution catalog. In this regard, one of the company’s biggest new titles is ‘Better Together’ (‘Bir Aile Hikayesi’), the Turkish adaptation of ‘This Is Us’, which comes from its alliance with Fox Turkey.
ttv Magazine
“It’s an adaptation of the script for ‘This Is Us’ from the US. It will be more accepted by Spanish-speaking audiences than the original is.”
34
“Fox has been distributing it internationally, but following the Disney acquisition, all sales business was paused. And now we will be in charge of distributing the series,” José Luis Gascue, EVP of International Sales at Calinos Entertainment, said to ttv Produced by Med Yapim, the series’ cast is led by Celil Nalçakan, Songül Öden, Elçin Afacan and Olgun Toker, among others, and it aired in Turkey for two seasons in 2019. “It’s a short series, with 55 episodes. It’s an adaptation of the script for ‘This Is Us’ from the US. It’s very well produced. It will be more accepted by Spanish-speaking audiences than the original is. Its characters and situations are more relatable for Latin audiences,” he explained. According to the executive, it’s a series with a closed ending. And while there’s also another “big new title” still in negotiations, the rest of Calinos Enter-
glarrea@todotv.tv
tainment’s catalog is made up by some of its classic titles, starting with ‘Woman’, which has now been sold almost all over the world. “It’s been sold in all of Latin America and Central Europe. There are still a few territories left in Central America: it’s only made it to El Salvador, Honduras and Panama. Now I would like for a network in Portugal to follow in Antena 3’s footsteps and air it. The same in Italy,” he explained. Thus, the focus will now be ‘Forbidden Fruit’, which fell behind in terms of sales due to the groundbreaking success of ‘Woman’ and ‘Our Story’. “It’s been scoring notable ratings in Turkey and it’s now in its fourth season. We still have some countries left to sell it in, because we had two very strong product ahead of it: ‘Woman’ and ‘Our Story’. There’s only a certain amount of product that networks can use at the same time,” he said. In addition, Calinos is continuing with its format sales strategy, which in spite of the pandemic, continues to represent a good opportunity for growth. “In Romania, we already adapted ‘Forbidden Fruit’ and we will start producing it now in Bulgaria,” he said. “We would like to continue down this line. A lot of telenovelas have that ability to become formats. ‘Forbidden Fruit’ is perfect. I would
