I don't know if any Spanish language drama series can be considered a tele-novela, but another one has been bought by an American production company to be adapted for the English-speaking audience of the United States.
The show is titled 'Personal Motives' and is based on the 2005 series 'Motivos Personales'. That series is from the same company which also produced 'Los Misterios de Laura' and I would hope you can recognize that title to have been adapted into NBC's 'The Mysteries Of Laura'.
'Grey's Anatomy' actress Ellen Pompeo's production company "Calamity Jane" will make the adaptation, which will about a news anchor who is in the middle of her broadcast when she sees her husband live on the screen being arrested for murder. She then sets out to prove her husband innocent.
I've only seen one news story on 'Personal Motives' so far, leaving me with very little information... information... information... to go on. This means that I don't know how closely the adaptation will follow the original. It could go either way - earlier this year ABC brought a limited series adaptation of an Australian murder mystery called 'Secrets & Lies' which only had two major deviations from the original in that the lead detective on the American case was a woman, and the last names of those involved were homogenized to be generic in their sense of Americana. As for the ending, the ultimate killer in the case was basically the same in both stories. (But if you've seen either one, you know it was too good a resolution to abandon. However, at least in the American version, the killer was telegraphed right from the very first episode.)
As for the other route it could take, the most recent series that could serve as an example would be 'Broadchurch', which was adapted by FOX as 'Gracepoint'. There, the shocking revelation at the end of that mini-series started out as the same as in the original, with a lot of the same plot points along the way. But then, 'Gracepoint' kept going and provided a new twist to the solution of the case. I was glad for it, but I think it would have made for a more gripping conclusion if only the showrunners and the network that it should be a one-season and done series. Then they could have provided a shocking finale along the lines of Ira Levin's play and TV movie "Dr. Cook's Garden".
Maybe one day I'll write up that ending for you, Team Toobworld. For alls I know, I already have......
Pompeo's company has yet to announce casting for the pilot, and it's unclear how committed ABC is in getting the show on the air. But the original series ran for two seasons in Spain and swept that country's version of the Emmy Awards. (Nine wins - Best Series, writing, directing, actress and the overall cast.) If executive producer Andy Stern's scripts can deliver something of similar power, then it should attract a big name for the woman newscaster. And maybe ABC might shove a Shondaland show to another night in order to make room for this new series in the Thursday night lineup......
Since it's all up in the air for the time being, I've wasted too many key strokes on this story as it is. But I will end with this: I think the likelihood is good for both versions of this series to exist in Earth Prime-Time - the original in Tel-España and the other in Telemerica.
And that's the way it is.....
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