Fabula, Fremantle Tap ‘The Secret in Their Eyes’ Writer Eduardo Sacheri for ‘Santa Maria’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentPablo and Juan de Dios Larrain’s Chile-headquartered Fabula (“Spencer,” “A Fantastic Woman”) and Fremantle have tapped Argentina’s Eduardo Sacheri, co-writer of the Oscar-winning “The Secret in Their Eyes,” to write “Santa María,” an eight-part high-end series.Part of global producer-distributor Fremantle’s multi-year first look deal with Fabula, Fremantle will co-produce “Santa María” and handle its international distribution.Now in development, “Santa María” is set to be presented at this month’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in its highly select High-End section of five projects, weighing in as one of Conecta Fiction’s 31 titles which is sure to fire up most interest at the TV forum.

An expansion of narrative reach for Fabula in line with its Prime Video series “El Presidente,” “Santa Maria” will be produced out of Fabula’s Mexico production beachhead.

It turns on a Spanish priest, a nun sent by the Vatican and a Cuban detective who are faced with solving the dreadful secrets that are taking place in a nursing home in Cuba.“Like a large part of our contents, the series feeds off a sub-stratum of reality to create a fantasy world, in this case a home housing the most perverse priests in the region who will be discovered and made the subject of an investigation, a metaphor for a tipping point as the Catholic Church crumbles,” said Ángela Poblete, president of Fabula TV.She added: “This formula of feeding off reality and incorporating fantasy elements allow us to make content which is deep but very entertaining: a potent mix of plot twists grounded in mysterious characters.”Sacheri has written a bible and a pilot.