Colombian 'Breaking Bad' Plot Cooks Up More Juicy Details in Extended Trailer
If you're a fan of Breaking Bad and you're experiencing withdrawal from its absence, you've already seen all the follow-up interviews, episode extras and bloopers, and you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Better Call Saul while spending an obscene amount of time in your tighty whities -- there may be another tidbit that you can add to the list before the only option you have left is to actually experience meth for yourself.
The extended trailer of the Spanish-language version of Breaking Bad, if you haven't seen it already (a shorter version was released last year) -- is otherwise known as the Colombian telenovela, "Metástasis" (a reference to metastasizing cancer). Slated to air in 2014 on UniMás, the show will give viewers a break from the stereo-typical cocaine and marijuana plots that often are often replicated in scripts associated with Colombia.
Besides Walter White being renamed Walter Blanco, the rest of the cast will have spin-off names as well, such as: Jesse Pinkman will be José Miguel Rosas, Skyler White will be Cielo Blanco, Hank Schrader will be Henry Navarro, and Saul Goodman will be Saúl Bueno.
Recently, New Republic, took a closer look at the show to find some more interesting layers and discoveries through its Spanish translations. A few examples of this include some necessary tweaks:
"There was, for one, the problem of the RV. Motor homes are very rare in Colombia, hence the old school bus that serves as Walter and Jose's roving meth lab. And Colombian lawyers don't market their services with over-the-top TV ads. So, rather than trolling for clients with the tagline 'Better Call Saul,' Saúl Bueno hosts a late-night talk show -- 'Cuéntele a Saúl' -- on which he dishes out legal advice. The neo-Nazis became a far-right Colombian paramilitary group.
"Also unfamiliar to Colombians are exterminators who cover entire residences in elaborate tarps in order to fumigate them. But Bogotá, with one of the highest urbanization rates of any Latin American city, does have many vacant houses waiting to be torn down in order to make way for new high-rises. So 'Metástasis' scraps the pest-control ruse of the final season of 'Breaking Bad' and has Walter and Jose cook in soon-to-be demolished homes."
Also New Republic points out that "methamphetamine is so rare in Colombia that its existence is made into a bit of an in-joke: 'What's methamphetamine? ... Why is it here?" Cielo (Skyler) asks her sister Maria (Marie): 'We love to copy what the gringos do.'"
Will the show stay true to the American version of Breaking Bad or veer off into a different direction?
"'Metástasis' is going to considerable lengths to be a different kind of show," according to Angelica Guerra, managing director of production for Latin America at Sony Pictures Television, the series, which has a "huge budget and the greatest actors of the region," is an attempt to merge the very different sensibilities of prestige cable drama and Latin American television. Vince Gilligan himself consulted, offering input on casting and plot tweaks along the way."
Check out an extended trailer of the Latin version of Breaking Bad (with English subtitles). Metástasis is set to air in 2014 on UniMás.