Cattleya Producciones to adapt Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel "El Italiano" for TV

ITV Studios owned company Cattleya Producciones has acquired the audiovisual rights to Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel "El Italiano", which it will be adapting for television in a mini-series format. Inspired by real events, “El Italiano” is a story of love, spies, and the sea set at the height of World War II in the Bay of Algeciras, where Italian combat divers are causing chaos among the Allied forces. The destinies of Elena Arbués and Teseo Lombardo will cross paths in an espionage plot that takes place on both sides of the Fence of Gibraltar. The novel has been a bestseller in 2021 and 2022, with more than 500,000 copies sold in Spanish, and was just recently launched in Italy, where it's been available in bookstores since the month of June.

The project is headed by Arturo Díaz, Managing Director and Executive Producer of Cattleya Producciones, and Ricardo Tozzi, founder and President of Cattleya. “When we read 'El Italiano', it was impossible not to imagine a television series. Arturo Pérez-Reverte transports us to a unique time and unique places, makes us fall in love with his characters, and both surprises and thrills us in equal measure. We can feel the danger of being a combat diver, the tension of being a spy crossing a border, and above all the passion of two highly nuanced characters. We want to make 'El Italiano' an ambitious international series, worthy of an author who represents Spain all over the world," says Díaz.

“`El Italiano' is a gripping adventure, love, and espionage story, set in an unconventional location, Gibraltar, a British territory that was affected by the Second World War because it was bordered by Spain, a neutral country. Its characters are ordinary men and women who, conditioned by the times in which they lived, led extraordinary lives. It is also the story of soldiers (sailors in this case) who were torn apart by internal conflicts caused by the armistice declared between Italy and the Allied Forces on September 8th, 1943. Our protagonist, after that crucial date, will choose to side with the Italian Army fighting alongside the Allied Forces," added Tozzi. 

Cattleya Producciones is already working on the international cast of actors who will bring this story's Spanish, Italian and English players to life. Screenwriter Beto Marini, creator of series including "La Unidad" will be in charge of the novel's adaptation.

“In those tragic, dangerous years of World War II, there were brave men and women that history left behind and has forgotten: people who did daring, seemingly impossible things that their adversaries were incapable of imagining. 'El Italiano' is my attempt to recover and honor their memory. I'm positive that this series from Cattleya, whose productions I have always admired for their quality, will be faithful to the story I wrote," says Arturo Pérez-Reverte.