Life on Mars to be remade for Spain

From The Times:

Fire up the Seat coupé, Señor Gene Hunt. Life on Mars is being transported to Spain after the country that gave the world machismo bought the remake rights to the show.

The award-winning time-travel police drama recreated the grim realities of Manchester in 1973. But Vida en Marte will be set in 1978, allowing the Spanish writers to dramatise a society emerging from the Franco dictatorship, which ended with the General's death in 1975, and avoid including some of the nastier aspects of life in a police state.

Antena 3, the leading Spanish commercial broadcaster, signed a deal yesterday with the BBC to remake the series. Casting will now begin for a Spanish actor to take the plum role of the hard-living, sexist Detective Chief Inspector Hunt.

Mercedes Gamero, Antena 3 head of acquisitions, believes that Life on Mars will be a prime-time hit — with a few tweaks. She told The Times: “We need to move the series forward to 1978 to recreate the characters. For example, no women were allowed in the police force under Franco. Under Franco, the police were seen as an important arm of the political regime. By 1978 there was a new openness in Spain which would have been challenging to some members of the police. There was a culture of machismo among Spanish men which has changed a lot.”

Read the rest of the article here.