AGC Television’s Upcoming ‘Amapola’ Explores True Origins of Drug Trade (EXCLUSIVE)
Stuart Ford’s AGC Television has boarded the series adaptation of F.G. Haghenbeck’s novel, ‘Primavera del Mal’ (‘The Spring of Evil’) alongside Mexican-American filmmaker Fernando Lebrija of Cielo Content and Irreversible Pictures.
To be retitled “Amapola,” the upcoming historical drama series is set in the early 20th century when the Chinese held sway over the drug trade along the Mexican-U.S. border.
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In the world of illicit trade, adopted siblings Raul Duval and Miguel Ying have successfully grown their family’s opium enterprise. Their ambitions now extend beyond mere cultivation as they seek to broaden their reach and increase their political influence. However, their aspirations take an unexpected turn when American mobster Bugsy Siegel arrives in Mexico City, offering them a golden opportunity.
Situated strategically between Nogales, Mexico, and Tucson, Arizona, the Ying family steers their course through the treacherous waters of the drug trade bridging Mexico and the U.S. In doing so, they set out to become the pioneers of North America’s modern drug trafficking era.
“This is not your typical narco series. It’s the story of how the smuggling of opium and marijuana began in America in the 1900s and who were the pioneers behind this phenomenon,” said producer Lebrija who co-writes the series with producer Max Zunino and scribes Sandra Garcia-Velten and Rodrigo Ordonez.
Ford and AGC Studios chief creative officer Lourdes Diaz serve as executive producers.
“This series is the genesis of all the narco series we know today, and without this story, none of those series would exist. This is the beginning, uniting four cultures: Americans, Chinese, Mexicans and Italians,” Lebrija pointed out.
Principal photography of the ambitious 8-episode series is targeted for next year and will be shot in English, Spanish and Chinese.
The project is one of various television shows, either in development or already produced, at AGC Television’s ever more powerful pipeline, one of the most bullish and international of U.S. independents.
To date it has co-financed and co-distributed “War of the Worlds,”produced by Fox Networks Group and Studiocanal’s Urban Myth, co-produced 2023 Platino Award winning “News of a Kidnapping” for Amazon, bowed a first season of self-financed heist drama “Leopard Skin” starring Carla Gugino on Peacock.
AGC has also scored with nonfiction features such as Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9,” co-financed three features with CNN Films including Jackie Collins biography “Ladyboss” and “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” executive produced Golden Globe nominated documentary “Ask Dr Ruth,” and backed Netflix global smash “The Tinder Swindler,” developed with Jeff Gaspin’s Gaspin Media.
Among its most high-profile shows, indeed one of the biggest independent TV shows in the world, is “Those About to Die,” an upcoming gladiator series from Roland Emmerich, starring Anthony Hopkins and a cast from across Europe and the Middle East.
In an earlier interview with Variety, Ford said: “In the early years it was our film production and film sales operations that fuelled the studio’s engine,” says Ford, “but in 2024 scripted television revenues will outstrip film, and we’re also expecting the unwritten pipeline of unscripted and factual content with its solid margins to meaningfully boost the overall bottom line.”
John Hopewell contributed this article.
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