HBO Max suspends production of its first soap opera

Warner Bros. Discovery has called off HBO Max’s ambitious plan to start making soap operas in Brazil. The decision was already planned, following the cancellation of HBO Max productions in Europe and the takeover from HBO Max to Latin America, but the platform preferred a less definitive approach, calling the suspension an indefinite postponement.

“As part of the reformulations relating to the merger process of Warner Bros. Discovery, the company has decided to postpone production for HBO Max of ‘Cruel Intentions’ (working title) to a new yet to be defined program,” the streamer said. note sent to the press.

According to the platform, “the development of the text continues until the end of the 40 chapters and, at the appropriate time, production will resume”.

The statement also underlines: “This decision is timely. It is not a decision to abandon the strategy of the soap opera, it only allows us to extend the time necessary to adapt to the new guidelines of the company”.

The merger between Warner and Discovery was completed in April. In addition to controlling the company, Discovery inherited a $ 55 billion doubt from the former WarnerMedia and, to prevent the situation from getting out of control, took radical measures, such as the order for TNT and TBS to stop producing content. with scripts, which led to the end of series like “Expresso do Amanhã” and “The Last OG” – and for HBO Max not to develop more original projects in Europe – with the exception of productions in France, Spain, Italy and the UK .

According to the statement, the Brazilian team of HBO Max continues with the green light to develop its first streaming soap opera … it simply cannot record it.

The disruption is also due to changes in commands in several departments due to the merger, including the company’s leadership in Latin America. The executive who gave the green light for soap opera production to HBO Max is no longer in the conglomerate.

Hired to head the platform’s soap operas department, former Globo TV star Sílvio de Abreu had plans to launch several short soap operas. He also wanted them to be called “teleseries”, without this having a convincing justification.

The first such production already had a cast and would begin filming in the next few days.

Written by Raphael Montes, creator of “Bom Dia, Verônica”, “Segundas Intentions” was a melodrama centered on the revenge of a young woman (Alice Wegmann) against unscrupulous villains (Camila Pitanga and Daniel de Oliveira) in a medical setting.

The cast would also include Antonio Fagundes, Murilo Rosa, João Vicente de Castro, Rodrigo Simas and Reynaldo Gianechini.

With indefinite postponement, production may have to start over. The minimum is a new cast, depending on the contracts, but the whole strategy could be rethought by HBO’s new manager Max for Latin America, not yet announced.

Source: Terra

Camila

Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.