"La Oficina" Moves South Of The Border

From Variety:

'Office' relocates to Latin America -- BBC licenses comedy for Chilean remake

By BOBBIE WHITEMAN

BBC Worldwide Americas has licensed "The Office" for a local remake in Chile.

It's the first format deal in Latin America for Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's comedy and the first Spanish-language version.

"We stopped making 'The Office' in 2003, but the rest of the world didn't," Gervais said. "I won't be happy until I see an Inuit doing the dance."

"The Office" airs in 90 countries, with remakes in the U.S., France and Germany.

The license covers season's one and two of the office-set spoof documentary plus end-of-season specials. Chilecorto and Canal 13-Chile, part of leading Chilean network UCTV, will begin production early this year; the show will air on Canal 13-Chile in May.

Chilean actor Luis Gnecco will play the role of the smug boss played by Gervais in the British version (and Steve Carell in the NBC remake), which has gone into syndication.

BBC Worldwide will advise on the production, and Duncan Cooper, BBC Worldwide's executive producer of formats and local production, will assist Chilecorto and Canal 13-Chile in the show's development.

Carmen Gloria Lopez, head of programming at Canal 13-Chile, said: "From watching 'The Office,' we realized very quickly that the working day in Chile is actually very similar to office life in the U.K. and America. Our production will show you we have more in common than you might think."