One Hundred Years of Solitude adapted by Netflix

Netflix has reportedly acquired the rights to adapt One Hundred Years of Solitude (Penguin), the first time the novel has been adapted for the screen.

According to the New York Times, Gabriel García Márquez’s novel is being developed for TV by the streaming company more than 50 years after it was published in 1967.  

In a recent call, as reported by the NYT the Nobel Prize winning novelist’s son Rodrigo García who will be an executive producer on the project along with his brother Gonzalo, said that his father had received many offers over the years to adapt the book to film. Apparently his father was concerned that One Hundred Years of Solitude ”would not translate well or fit within a single movie or even two. García Márquez was also committed to the story being told in Spanish, so many offers were “non-starters” to him.

“In the last three or four years, the level and prestige and success of series and limited series has grown so much,” García told the NYT about his family’s decision to sell the development rights now. “Netflix was among the first to prove that people are more willing than ever to see series that are produced in foreign languages with subtitles. All that seems to be a problem that is no longer a problem.”

Francisco Ramos, v.p. for Spanish language originals at Netflix, said the company had previously tried before to obtain rights to the novel. He believes the company’s successful series such as “Narcos” and its recent Oscar-winning film “Roma,” has shown “we can make Spanish-language content for the world,” the paper reported.