Betty la Brutta in Italy

Contributor & Written by: Tony Lagarto
Source: Tony's "Ugly Betty" FanSite

At Roma Fiction Fest in July 2008, Roberto Sessa, the General Executive Manager of Grundy Italia, a company that bought the rights to the original Colombian Betty format for adapting in Europe, is in advanced negotiations with Rai Fiction to make an Italian version of the Betty story as a daily afternoon comedic soap opera to air on Raiuno in 2008. Sessa has stated that over 60 scripts have already been written for the adaptation, with a total of 334 episodes being planned, but the difficult task now will be to find a beautiful, young, Italian actress who will be willing to get ugly for the lead role. A casting call for "Betty la Brutta" has been posted at castingnews.eu. The project is being overseen by Paul Terracciano, head writer, and Alberto Bader, creative producer. Grundy Italia previously produced "Yo soy Bea" for Spain's Telecinco network.

The big question now is whether Italian audiences will accept their own adaptation of the Betty story or not. They've already had "Yo soy Betty, la fea" (as "Betty la Cozza") and they currently have "Ugly Betty", and both versions have done well, so many Italians have been skeptical as to the need for yet another version. Plus, they don't seem particularly confident in their countrymen's ability to create a good serialized production. It seems that Italian productions of soap operas or telenovelas haven't been executed very well in the past. Perhaps that's why foreign imports like "The Bold and the Beautiful" (from the U.S.) have been so popular there. The postings that I've read online also express concern about the quality of actors that the show will attract. I guess the really good actors would look down on such a project. Who knows, though... perhaps Italians will end up falling in love with their very own Betty, once they get to know her. I, for one, being an unabashed Italophile, am very interested to see how this all turns out.

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