albert espinosa

The popular drama series by Albert Espinosa, based on his experiences of staying in a children’s hospital, has a pilot episode in development, with scripting by Margaret Nagel (‘Boardwalk Empire’) and supervision from Steven Spielberg. ‘Polseres Vermelles’, known to English-speaking audiences as ‘The Red Band Society’, has received positive feedback from its international distributors. An Italian adaptation, called ‘Braccialetti rossi’, started to be aired by RAI1 on January 26.  ‘Polseres Vermelles’ is an original project from Catalonia’s Public Television Broadcaster.

Victus, the historical novel by Albert Sánchez Piñol, has triumphed on the Catalan National Day of roses and books both in the Spanish and Catalan language. In the category of media-friendly writers, the biggest-selling book has been Brúixoles que busquen somriures perduts by Albert Espinosa, the scriptwriter known for his hit TV series Polseres Vermelles (‘The Red Band Society’). Barcelona’s streets were filled with bookstalls where the most popular authors signed their books in front of huge queues of excited fans. For bookshops it is also a great chance to bring in some much needed revenue as it is estimated that on Sant Jordi’s Day they invoice between 8% and 10% of the whole year’s profits, a figure of around 18 million euros.

The series, produced by the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster and Filmax, has been exported to several countries and Steven Spielberg and Marta Kauffman are going to shoot a remake for the ABC network. ‘Polseres vermelles’ – which literally means ‘red bracelets’ in Catalan - describes the life of a group of six teenagers who live in a hospital as patients. It is based on the personal experiences of its creator, Albert Espinosa, who had cancer as a child. The first season was aired in 2011 and it became a huge success with audiences. The second season premiered on Thursday and will be broadcast as from Monday on TV3 at prime time.

Steven Spielberg has bought the rights to adapt a series produced and broadcast by Catalonia’s public TV station. The American name will be ‘The Red Band Society’ and Marta Kauffman, creator of ‘Friends’, might be in charge of the script. The main characters in the series are a group of teenagers with cancer, who develop a friendship and explore their imagination in hospital. ‘Polseres vermelles’ was a huge success on Catalan television and the second season is in production.