Patricio Rabuffetti Carlos Bacceti Pucho Mentasi Esteban Puenzo
The German ZDF Studios, Non Stop Studios, and La Sagrada Familia are the co-producers of Fangio, la Serie on the life of the pilot Juan Manuel Fangio, which began to take shape more than three years ago and in which his children Juan Carlos, Rubén and Oscar Fangio also take part.
This super production will be shot in Latin America and some locations in Europe, and the idea is to recreate as faithfully as possible the 50s in which Fangio lived: the places and mainly the Formula 1 races that turned the pilot into a legend.
“This series will have high production levels. It depicts the life of a human being who lived life to the limit and had a phrase that summarizes his existence: ‘I ran at almost 200 miles per hour so love wouldn’t catch up with me’. I was a man who took out his heart and put on an engine and was an excellent pilot since in those days we drove in extreme situations and in each race they put their lives on the line” described Patricio Rabuffetti, president of Non Stop Studios, who joined the project because he was very interested in the content of this sort that was totally unedited.
The aim is for it to be aired on a platform, but in this case, he wouldn’t take part as a co-producer because the trend is to have fewer original products, because they can have a high-budget series that is already finished and at a much lower cost than if it were an original. “TV viewers don’t care if it is good, they don’t care if it is a platform original or not” he detailed.
The renowned publicist Carlos Baccetti was the person who contacted Fangio’s children and got the rights to the story. Then, the brothers Nicolas and Esteban Puenzo, as well the advertising director Pucho Mentasti joined forces to create La Sagrada Familia, whose first great project is the series on Fangio, but they are also working on other productions which they cannot yet disclose.
He highlighted that this whole path helped him meet some details of what a series is, like the Bible, the dramatic arc of the characters, and the hooks to continue watching the scenes, among other things.
He admits that due to the scale of the production, they had to seek investors, and that is when Rabuffetti—who knows the business—joined them, and then ZDF, and they had to make some changes in the script that delayed the project.
As a good advertiser, he doesn’t rule out the organic inclusion of brands related to car racing, but nothing is confirmed yet.
Currently, Mentasti and Esteban Puenzo are working on the scripts, on the development, and on all the aspects of pre-production. Casting is being finalized and they expect to start shooting in mid-2024, so it will be ready to be released in 2025.
