Gato Grande, an Amazon MGM Studios firm, has upped Megan Espinoza and Moises Amsel to the positions of VPs of Movie & TV Improvement within the firm’s newly-launched English-language division.
Espinoza and Amsel will assume accountability for the day by day operations of the brand new unit, specializing in the creation of authentic mental property in English for each TV and movie, sourced from Latin American IP. Moreover, they are going to be tasked with figuring out and managing tasks to be developed and produced underneath the Gato Grande label.
Mentioned Gato Grande CEO Carla Vargas Gonzalez: “I’m very happy with our bi-cultural, top-notch executives who not solely guard, search and respect authenticity, however have unmatchable work ethics and excessive requirements. Most of all, they’re a pleasure to work with.”
Espinoza will middle on comedy and Younger Grownup content material for each TV and Movie, beginning with the lately unveiled satirical thriller sequence “Miami Spice,” based mostly on the novel “Mango, Mambo and Homicide” from creator Raquel V. Reyes’ celebrated Caribbean Kitchen Thriller ebook sequence.
Amsel will oversee drama and thriller tasks for all media, together with the beforehand introduced journey/survival drama sequence “Clipperton,” based mostly on the best-selling Colombian creator Laura Restrepo’s widely-acclaimed debut novel, “The Isle of Ardour.”
“At Gato Grande, I’ve the artistic freedom to dive into the sort of progressive, character-driven tales that I’ve all the time been keen about,” stated Espinoza, including: ”I really feel extremely fortunate to be a part of a crew that has been so open to pursuing distinctive IP; the properties we’ve acquired have attracted passionate and extremely gifted creators, and I can’t wait to share our present slate of tasks with the world.”
Espinoza’s decade of expertise within the leisure trade began at Warner Bros. Tv earlier than she oversaw growth for Ted Melfi’s Goldenlight Movies. Whereas at Gato Grande, she dealt with the artistic growth of the corporate’s award-winning documentary sequence, “Libre de Reír.”
Mentioned Amsel, “At Gato Grande we’re proud to be setting the stage for the way forward for audiovisual content material with Hispanic DNA. Our state-of-the-art slate has been fastidiously designed to subvert expectations, that includes distinctive tales with world and business attraction that anybody, no matter origin, can join with and revel in.”
Previous to taking this place, Amsel oversaw growth for Latin America and government produced the documentary sequence “Monstruos,” which is at the moment in submit for Paramount+.
The brand new division was launched in late January in a bid to discover the wealth of tales coming from the area. To that finish, Vargas Gonzalez introduced a multi-million-dollar price range to attract on extra Latin American IP and adapt them for mainstream audiences worldwide, a technique that extra Iberoamerican-led firms have been pursuing.
Based by the Emmy-nominated Vargas Gonzalez, the bi-cultural firm with workplaces in Los Angeles and Mexico is 50% owned by MGM, which was acquired by Amazon for $8.5 billion in 2022. The corporate has produced Latin-American hit: “Luis Miguel: The Collection” (Netflix) and “Libre de reír “(Prime Video) amongst a number of others.
Gato Grande is represented by Brian Dobbins and Kimberlin Belloni at Artists First.
