Producer Argos reups with Azteca

Production house re-signs with network

By MICHAEL O'BOYLE

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican indie production company Argos has re-signed with Mexico's No. 2 web TV Azteca.

TV Azteca is looking to increase the amount of independently produced shows it airs in 2007 as its dominant rival Televisa revamps its primetime lineup with series and sitcoms. The first telenovela with Argos will air in early 2007.

Argos, run by Epigmeno Ibarra, started up a decade ago producing telenovelas for TV Azteca, but jumped ship in 2001 to produce for Telemundo, which aired nine Argos productions.

Telemundo, which plans to open its own studio in Mexico early this year, let its contract with Argos lapse as of the end of 2006.

Argos will finish production of "Mariana," still on air. Telemundo has yet to announce its first Mexican productions.

Argos currently is producing a series with HBO, the feevee's first co-prod in Mexico. It's also trying to finance a slate of films for 2007, including the latest from helmer Carlos Carrera since his hit "El Crimen del Padre Amaro" (The Crime of Father Amaro).

Carrera is set to direct the adaptation of Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "News of a Kidnapping."

Lionsgate this fall picked up U.S. and world rights to Argos co-prod "Fuera del Cielo," helmed by Javier Fox Patron.

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