The Office Gears Up for Production in Chile

NEW YORK, January 14: BBC Worldwide Americas has licensed
the format rights to its hit comedy The Office to production company Chilecorto and Chile’s Canal 13, who will begin
work on the Spanish-language version early this year.

This marks the first time a Spanish version of Ricky
Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s award-winning comedy will be made, and the
first format deal for The Office in
Latin America. The series is set to air in Chile on Canal 13 beginning in May.

BBC Worldwide will advise on the production and Duncan
Cooper, BBC Worldwide’s executive producer of formats and local production,
will assist Chilecorto and Canal 13–Chile in the show’s development.

Chilean actor Luis Gnecco has signed on to play David Brent,
the buffoonish boss, a role filled by Ricky Gervais in the British version and
Steve Carell in its U.S. counterpart. Gnecco also appeared in the pilot episode
produced earlier in 2007. Chilecorto is currently casting for the remaining
characters.

The Office is filmed
in spoof documentary style, and chronicles the daily lives of a quirky cast of
employees at a small-town fictional paper supply company. The original U.K.
version is shown in some 90 countries, with remakes in the U.S., France,
Germany and now Chile.

Wayne Garvie, the director of content and production at BBC
Worldwide, said: “The wonderful characters Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant
created continue to prove themselves to be universal. It’s incredibly exciting
that this unique show is now going to be reinvented for Spanish and Latin
American audiences, giving them a chance to cringe and squirm with the millions
of The Office fans around the world.”

Carmen Gloria Lopez, the head of programming at Canal 13 in
Chile, commented: “From watching The Office
we realized very quickly that the working day in Chile is actually very similar
to office life in the U.K. and America. Our production with Chilecorto will
show you we have more in common than you might think.”

Chilecorto’s executive producer, Nimrod Amitai, added: “We
are very pleased to be the first to develop The Office in South America. We feel we have a great piece of
material in our hands and we want to make it as successful as other
international adaptations. Our objective is to explore the very worst of our
Chilean society, and make the audience laugh about it. So in that way, the
project must be therapeutic.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski