Netflix releases teaser for TV series ‘100 Years of Solitude’

Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez delivers a speech after signing the creation of the “Casa de Colombia” at the Colombian Embassy in Mexico City on June 29, 2004. April 17, 2024, marks the 10th anniversary of the death of the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Netflix on April 17, 2024, released a sneak peek of its TV series adaptation of Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” coinciding with the anniversary of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s death. ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Netflix on Wednesday, April 17, released a sneak peek of its TV series adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s death.

Published in 1967, the novel is considered a masterpiece that defined “magical realism” as a literary genre and has been translated into 46 languages.

It centers around seven generations of the Buendia family in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo.

“In the mythical town of Macondo, the Buendia family confronts a curse, madness and impossible love,” the streaming platform said on X.

No date has been given for the release of the 16-episode series, which was first announced in 2019 and filmed in Garcia Marquez’s home country, Colombia. Netflix said on its website the series is coming in 2024.

“In this sneak peek, we hear Aureliano Babilonia as he reads from the mythical diary of Melquiades and are transported to Macondo to witness Colonel Aureliano Buendia standing before a firing squad while he remembers that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice,” Netflix said in a statement.

“What follows are breathtaking scenes of Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula Iguaran’s journey in search of happiness, fleeing the curse placed upon their lineage.”

READ: World reacts to death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Garcia Marquez was a leading member of the “Latin American boom” of authors of the 1960s and ’70s that included Nobel laureates Octavio Paz of Mexico and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” has sold some 50 million copies worldwide.

Rodrigo Garcia and Gonzalo Garcia Barcha, the sons of the late author, were executive producers on the show.

“For decades our father was reluctant to sell the film rights” to the book “because he believed that it could not be made under the time constraints of a feature film, or that producing it in a language other than Spanish would not do it justice,” Garcia said in 2019.

But in the current “golden age” of TV series, with quality writing and directing “and the acceptance by worldwide audiences of programs in foreign languages, the time could not be better,” he said.

The series was filmed entirely in Spanish, and directed by Colombian Laura Mora and Argentine Alex Garcia Lopez.

“One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most ambitious productions in Latin America to date,” said Netflix.

The series comes after the author’s relatives in March posthumously released his final novel, “Until August.”