Fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magical realism novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" will get a chance to see the multigenerational tale unfold on Netflix.
The streaming service has acquired the rights to the 1967 masterpiece for an undisclosed sum and will be adapting it into a Spanish-language TV series.
"For decades our father was reluctant to sell the film rights to Cien Anos de Soledad because he believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film, or that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice," Rodrigo Garcia, Garcia Marquez's son, said in a statement Wednesday.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" tells the story of seven generations of the Buendia family in the fictional town of Macondo in Colombia. The novel has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 46 languages.
Garcia Marquez, a Nobel Prize-winning author, died in 2014 at age 87. His sons Rodrigo Garcia and Gonzalo Garcia Barcha will act as executive producers on the project, which is set to be filmed predominantly in Colombia.
"In the current golden age of series, with the level of talented writing and directing, the cinematic quality of content, and the acceptance by worldwide audiences of programs in foreign languages, the time could not be better to bring an adaptation to the extraordinary global viewership that Netflix provides," Garcia said. "We are excited to support Netflix and the filmmakers in this venture, and eager to see the final product."
Netflix has found a global audience for Spanish-language films and series. Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" moved to the streaming service after a brief theatrical run and went on to garner 10 Oscar nominations and three wins for best director, best cinematography and best foreign language film.
"We know our members around the world love watching Spanish-language films and series and we feel this will be a perfect match of project and our platform," Francisco Ramos, vice president of Spanish-language originals at Netflix, said in a statement.
In February, Netflix unveiled a slate of five new series in development in Spain for launch on the platform in 2020 —"El Desorden que Dejas," a psychological thriller, "El Vecino," a superhero comedy, "Valeria" a female-led dramedy, "Memorias de Idhun," an animated series based on fantasy novel trilogy and "Dias de Navidad," a three-episode dramatic miniseries.
Netflix did not disclose when "One Hundred Years of Solitude" would begin filming or when it would be released on the platform.