Mexican producer Carla Estrada, who achieved great success with past productions such as “Sortilegio” and “Amor Real”, is reportedly in talks for producing a new telenovela for Televisa. 

Although there aren’t many details about it yet, she reportedly met the screenwriters who will be writing for the novela. In the past couple of years it was reported that she’ll be producing the original telenovela "A la luz del ángel", but now it is said that she left that idea behind, and that she now plans to make a remake of last year’s Brazilian hit telenovela "Avenida Brasil".

Silvia Navarro and Fernando Colunga are reportedly considered for the main roles, although nothing is confirmed yet. If they do get cast in the series, it seems unlikely that they will portray Nina and Jorginho, but can you imagine them as the Mexican Carminha and Tufão?

The telenovela might start its production in 2014.

Preparations are underway for the remake of the 1994 hit 'Imperio de Cristal', which will be produced by producer Carlos Moreno. We slowly get to know who are going to be the actors who will portray the roles portrayed by such actors as Rebecca Jones, Ari Telch, Kate del Castillo, Alejandro Tommasi, Cecilia Gabriela, Ignacio López Tarso and Alejandro Camacho in the original version.

The protagonist of the remake will be Chilean actor Cristián de la Fuente, who collaborated with Moreno in his last telenovela 'Amor Bravío' last year. Mexican actress Alejandra Barros confirmed via her twitter account that she’ll be participating in the telenovela. She wrote that although she won’t be the protagonist, she’s very happy to participate in this production.

Meanwhile, Flavio Medina will once again make things difficult for Cristián de la Fuente, with whom he also collaborated in 'Amor Bravío', as he was casted as the villain of the novela. He will portray César, the role that was originally played by Alejandro Camacho. Medina stated: “It’s a villain that will have a dark, difficult and complicated parts of his personality. I’m very happy to be working again with Carlos.”

The filming is expected to begin in August, while the telenovela should being airing during October.

At its annual upfront presentation, held last week, Telemundo announced its programming for 2013-2014, which is expected to feature over 1000 hours of new content, including five telenovelas:  “Dama y Obrero” (Lady and The Worker), “La Impostora” (The Imposter), “Reina de Corazones” (Queen of Hearts), “Santa Diabla”—working title (Holy Devil) and “Camelia la Tejana” (Camelia The Texan). 

“Dama y Obrero” (starred by Ana Layevska, José Luis Reséndez and Fabián Ríos) features Ignacia, a young engineer who works in a large construction company owned by her boyfriend Tomás. Ignacia and Tomás have been together for a long time and finally decide to get married, although Ignacia could never imagine the kind of man Tomás really is. Days before the wedding, they have a heated argument, and Ignacia decides to leave town and have some time to herself. From there, she meets Pedro, a man who appears to be wealthy and with whom she spends an unforgettable weekend. However, Ignacia knows she is only living a dream, a pause in her life, so the next morning, Pedro wakes up to find a note from Ignacia but with no trace of how to find her. Regretting what has happened, she goes back home where Tomás is waiting for her with an offer for an impressive promotion at his company and expects that this will make her forgive him. When Ignacia, now in a powerful position, discovers that Pedro is an average construction worker, the two will find that despite having every reason on earth not to be together, they will love each other despite prejudice, differences and rejection that threaten to pull them apart.

“La Impostora” is an endearing romantic story with a touch of classic melodrama, set in Playa del Carmen, the heart of the Mayan Riviera. The story follows the adventures of Blanca Guerrero, a good-looking and witty aspiring actress who makes a living as a waitress in a picturesque restaurant that caters to tourists. Blanca gets her big break when she is hired by famous Hollywood actor Adriano Ferrer to pose as Victoria San Marino, a millionaire investor from New York. In this role, she will infiltrate the powerful Altamira family with the secret intent of discovering the whereabouts of a son that Adriano had twenty years before with Alexandra, a now-deceased daughter of the Altamira. Adriano’s scheme is put in jeopardy when Blanca falls in love with Eduardo, the handsome and charismatic scion of the Altamira clan. There are no official casting news for this series, but Litzy, Fabián Ríos and Felicia Mercado participated in the trailer. As Fabián Ríos and Felicia Mercado will play villains in “Dama y Obrero”, it is quite likely that the cast of “La Impostora” will be changed unless production is delayed.

“Reina de Corazones,” set amidst the glitz of Sin City, is the story of Reina and Diego, a young couple madly in love and about to get married in Las Vegas. Tragically, when the groom never shows up for the wedding, a devastated Reina faints at the doorstep of the chapel upon learning that her beloved has been fatally shot. When Reina comes to and opens her eyes again, she realizes that the chapel is no longer the same, she is now in a majestic church, with hundreds of guests seated awaiting a splendorous ceremony and the groom waiting for her at the altar is not her Diego, but Victor, a powerful gangster. Many secrets are revealed as Reina discovers she has forgotten the last five years of her life and tries to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. Reportedly, the protagonists for this original telenovela by Corazón Valiente’s author Marcela Citterio, will be Eugenio Siller and Adriana Fonseca, who both collaborated with Citterio before (Siller in “Aurora” and Fonseca in “Corazón Valiente”).

“Camelia la Tejana” is inspired by a song of the same name from the legendary Mexican regional music band Los Tigres Del Norte, the same tune that inspired one of the most successful stories ever told on Spanish-language TV, “La Reina del Sur.” The story begins in the 1970s and is centered around Camelia, a young, innocent and beautiful woman who tries to escape from one of Mexico’s most powerful drug lords, Don Antonio. While fleeing her small town, Camelia encounters love in Emilio Varela, a man who will turn out to be Camelia’s greatest betrayer. It is because of Emilio that Camelia embarks down a criminal path that would change her life forever, but after he betrays her, Camelia vows to make him pay. Camelia’s strength and character will make her a legend, but first, she will become the most wanted woman on both sides of the law and the border between the U.S and Mexico. Sara Maldonado portrayed Camelia in the trailer. The series will be a coproduction between Telemundo and Argos.

“Doña Diabla” centers on a dramatic twist of fate that leads Santa Martinez to live the worst of nightmares—the loss of her husband, following an obsessed woman’s terrible plot to destroy him. Santa is driven to devise a plan for the “perfect” revenge. The flaw in her plan will arise when she realizes that love is, once again, knocking on her door. That is when she will have to choose whether to sacrifice love or the revenge she fought to have. The telenovela will be starred by Gaby Espino and Aarón Díaz, while Ximena Duque will play the villain. Rumor has it that Carlos Ponce will also act in this anticipated telenovela.

The filming for one of Telemundo’s upcoming novelas began this week in Los Angeles. It was announced that Ana Layevska and José Luis Reséndez will play the leading roles: Ignacia and Pedro, while Fabián Ríos and Felicia Mercado will be the villains. This telenovela will be a remake of the Chilean hit telenovela of the same name, which was aired on TVN throughout 2012. It was originally written by José Ignacio Valenzuela, who also wrote “La familia de al lado”, the original Chilean novela which was remade by Telemundo as “La casa de al lado” in 2011. It will be adapted for Telemundo by Sandra Velazco. Catalina Mora, Sofia Lama, Christina Dieckmann and Shalim Ortiz are also expected to participate in this anticipated telenovela.

The telenovela, which is expected to premiere during the summer, will be filmed in such locations as Beverly Hills, East LA, Santa Monica and Malibu. As its title suggests, it will focus on a troubled love story between two people from different world: a rich girl and a poor guy. Will they be able to overcome all the obstacles that stand in their way?

 Layevska and Reséndez had worked together in the 2005 Televisa novela “La Madrastra”, where they played a couple.  She and Ríos also collaborated in the 2010 Telemundo series “El Fantasma de Elena”, where they both played villains. This will be the first main role for Layevska in Telemundo. On the other hand, it seems that Reséndez and Ríos can’t move on to a new project without working together. This is their third telenovela where they work together in a row. They played brothers in “Los Herederos Del Monte” and good friends in “Corazón Valiente”, however, they will play rivals in their new series.

On last Monday Pol-ka finally began the filming of its newest series “Farsantes”, starred by Facundo Arana, Griselda Siciliani, Julio Chávez, Benjamín Vicuña and Julieta Cardinali. Julio Chávez will play Guillermo Graziani, a prestigious lawyer that had to step away from his profession, but decides to work as a lawyer again and open again his law firm. He is attracted to Pedro (Benjamín Vicuña), a young lawyer who works at his firm, but Pedro is in a relationship with Camila (Julieta Cardinali). 

Other employees of the law firm are: Alberto (Facundo Arana), an ex-prisoner whom Guillermo helped in the past without charging any money for his services, Gabriela (Griselda Siciliani), a young and headstrong lawyer, and Marcos (Alfredo Casero), an ambitious yet nice law expert, who is of a dubious character.

Each episode, the series will show different legal cases, while also dealing with the private lives of the employees of the law firm. Other actors who will participate in this series are Leonor Manso, Edda Díaz, Mario Pasik, Ingrid Pelicori, Julieta Zylberberg, Esteban Lamothe, Pilar Gamboa, Romina Ricci and Chino Darín. It will be written by Mario Segade and Carolina Aguirre and directed by Daniel Barone and Jorge Bechara.

Mexican-American actor Aarón Díaz signed an exclusive contract with U.S based television network Telemundo this week, according to which he is expected to participate in several projects by the Spanish language network, which is based in Miami. The exact number of projects and the contract’s duration were not specified.

Díaz starred in several Televisa hits, such as "Lola, Érase una vez", "Clase 406" and "Teresa". After filming two novelas for Univision, he decided to part ways with the network and move to Telemundo. His latest projects were “El Talismán” and “Rosario”, where he portrayed the villain. While filming “El Talismán” he fell in love with his costar, Argentine actress and singer Lola Ponce, and the two became parents to baby girl Erin this past March.

His first telenovela for Telemundo will reportedly be “Santa Diabla”, where he is expected to collaborate with Gaby Espino, who will be his leading lady, and with Ximena Duque, who will play the villain. This new novela will be written by José Ignacio Valenzuela, who previously wrote "La casa de al lado".

A week ago, Díaz posted a photo of the cover of the script for the first episode of “Santa Diabla”, adding that “it’s very, very goooood!”

It’s still not defined who will be her leading man in the new show, and two of the candidates are Manuel Sosa and José Luis Reséndez. The villain of the show is rumored to be played by Fabián Ríos. Reséndez and Layevska had previously played a couple in the memorable ‘La Madrastra’. Ana had also collaborated with Ríos in ‘El Fantasma de Elena’. It will be her first leading role for Telemundo after portraying mainly villains.

Mexican producer Lucero Suárez and her team recently began the filming of the new telenovela "De que te quiero, te quiero", which will be protagonized by Livia Brito and Juan Diego Covarrubias. It will be the first time that both play the leading roles in a novela, and Suárez said she’s very happy to give a boost to their careers: “Of course I am, because they’re good actors, fresh faces, and very hardworking.”

Unlike many remakes that are normally produced by Televisa, this time it will be an original story written by Valentina Parraga, who also wrote "Amorcito corazón". The telenovela will be focused on three love stories.

Livia Brito will portray Natalia, a beautiful and tender girl who has many siblings, while Juan Diego Covarrubias will portray a pair of twins that fall in love with her. Her mother in the show will be played by Cynthia Klitbo, who owns an inn and has five children from different partners in the novela. Although she’s in love with her current boyfriend, her ex-boyfriends start appearing one by one, and that provoked many funny moments. In addition, Marisol del Olmo will play a woman who falls in love with a man who is 10 years younger than her.

Both Brito and Covarrubias are very excited to play the leading roles for the first time. Brito said: “of course I’m nervous because it’s my first leading role, but it’s the time to show what I’ve got and use wisely the opportunity given to me by the producer.”

Meanwhile, Covarrubias said that it will be a challenge to play a double role: “I’m both the protagonist and the antagonist. The story is very cool, it’s very clear, I’m very grateful to Lucero Suárez.”

"De que te quiero, te quiero" will begin airing in Mexico in June.

On April 4^th a mass was held in the filming studios of Televisa to celebrate, bless and fill with good vibes the production of one of the most anticipated telenovelas of 2013, ‘La Tempestad’, which will replace ‘Amores Verdaderos’ and premiere on May 13^th at 9:30pm on Canal de las Estrellas.

Upcoming remake of Brazilian telenovela ‘Fina Estampa’ on Telemundo, 2013

Originally written by Aguinaldo Silva, adapted for Telemundo by Perla Farias

Ten years after her unforgettable debut role of Salete in Manoel Carlos’ telenovela ‘Mulheres Apaixonadas’, Bruna Marquezine will play a double role in his upcoming telenovela ‘Em família’, set to air at the beginning of 2014.

Filming for ‘La Tempestad’, which will replace ‘Amores Verdaderos’, and starring William Levy and Ximena Navarrete, began in Veracruz a few weeks ago.

It seems that the upcoming telenovela of Mexican producer Carlos Moreno will be an adaptation of the successful 1994 Televisa telenovela ‘Imperio de Cristal’ (Crystal Empire), originally produced by Carlos Sotomayor and led by actors Rebecca Jones and Ari Telch.