Alex Pina, the creator of the Spanish-language hit Money Heist, has extended his global exclusive partnership with Netflix, which includes Pina's new high-concept series inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The yet-to-be-titled series is set in an opulent underground bunker where the country's one percent seek refuge from disaster on the surface. Pina said the show was inspired by a story in a Spanish newspaper on Oct. 9, 2021, about wealthy Spaniards buying bunkers in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Some of the new shelters that were being built were luxury homes in the subsoil,” says Pina. “Up to 15 floors down, with exclusive services, such as cinema, pool, spa, gym and common gardens, with water and food to survive more than five years. An underground community for 75 people. And then we thought about what life would be like there. Social, family and romantic relationships, in an underground shelter to which they had hastily and exclusively fled.”
Through his Madrid-based production outfit Vancouver Media, Pina is also developing the Money Heist spinoff Berlin, a prequel focused on the backstory of the character played by Pedro Alonso in the original series. Berlin is set to premiere on Netflix in 2023.
Originally created for Spanish network Antenna 3 in 2017, Money Heist became an international hit on Netflix, which stepped in to bankroll seasons three through five. The last five episodes of the original series dropped on Netflix on Dec. 3. The show, which follows the cat-and-mouse adventures of a group of bank robbers and the police trying to catch them, was, before Squid Game, the most watched non-English-language drama on Netflix, seen by 180 million households worldwide.
Netflix has also greenlit a Korean version of Money Heist, with Squid Game actor Park Hae-soo set to play the Berlin role.
