Yahoo Lifestyle Spain’s Zeta Studios and Brazil’s Conspiração Team Up to Adapt Globo Hit Series ‘Under Pressure’
Spain’s Zeta Studios, the company behind Netflix hit “Elite,” has partnered with leading Brazilian indie Conspiração to create “Bajo Presión,” a Spanish remake of the hit Brazilian TV medical drama, “Sob Pressão”(“Under Pressure”).
Set in the emergency room of a public hospital, Brazil’s “Under Pressure” hit a sweet spot, mixing large suspense – about the fate of patients, and the series’ long term relationship – and a bracing social realism. The story revolves around a surgeon (Julio Andrade) and doctor (Marjorie Estiano) battling not only for their relationship but also against the severe lack of hospital resources. As they navigate this challenging landscape, their professional values, ingenuity and mounting desperation collide.
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The original five-season series for Brazilian media giant Globo was developed by Claudio Torres, Jorge Furtado, Renato Fagundes, and Luiz Noronha and penned by Lucas Paraízo.
It draws inspiration from “Me You Them” director Andrucha Waddington’s film of the same name, based on an original idea by Mini Kerti, and the book “Sob Pressão – A rotina de guerra de um médico brasileiro” by Dr. Marcio Maranhão, who also served as a medical consultant for the original show. Waddington served as a co-showrunner on the series.
Over its five seasons, “Sob Pressão” became a global success, becoming one of Globo’s top-selling series. Lauded by both audiences and critics, the medical drama gained international recognition after being featured at festivals like the Berlinale and TIFF, and it was also nominated for an International Emmy Award in the Best Actress category.
In Argentina, the series premiered on Telefe in 2019, becoming one of the most-watched programs on free-to-air television. During its run on TV Globo, “Sob Pressão” reached 40 million viewers weekly, leading to its licensing in more than 70 countries, including Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, and Ecuador. This has made it one of Globo’s top-selling series today.
The Spanish adaptation will be produced in Mexico, with Conspiração’s Andrucha Waddington and Renata Brandão as well as Zeta’s Marcelo Tamburri serving as executive producers.
“Zeta Studios is excited to bring productions from Brazil, a country known for its high-quality audiovisual content, to a new audience. Partnering with one of the leading production companies, Conspiração, we are adapting one of the most successful shows in free-to-air television history, ‘Sob Pressão,’” said Antonio Asensio, adding: “We are confident that the Spanish version will be just as successful. This is a major challenge for us, but we are tackling it with a first-rate team of professionals from our production company in Mexico.”
Tamburri, director of international content at Zeta Studios, concurred: “Brazil has great IPs and bringing to other markets, alongside Conspiração, the adaptation of such a successful and high-quality production like ‘Under Pressure’ makes us very happy and honored! At Zeta Studios, we will work to reach and captivate the Mexican and Spanish-speaking audience worldwide, just as it happened in Brazil.”
Brandão, executive producer of the series and CEO of Conspiração, noted that their partnership with Zeta Studios signals their steadfast commitment to the internationalization and the production of high-quality content in other languages.
“Adapting the series for the Spanish-speaking market emphasizes the universal themes and profound human drama that underpin the show,” said Waddington, adding: “It will be more than just a simple remake; it is an opportunity to connect with new audiences through shared realities and new touching stories. I believe it will have an impact over several seasons, just as ‘Sob Pressão’ did.”
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