{"id":431492,"date":"2026-05-04T08:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/431492\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T08:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:59:08","slug":"eva-longoria-house-of-the-spirits-eps-on-adapting-allendes-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/431492\/","title":{"rendered":"Eva Longoria, ‘House of the Spirits’ EPs on Adapting Allende’s Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere was both magic and realism involved for the Chilean creatives Francisca Alegr\u00eda<\/a> and Fernanda Urrejola<\/a>, who brought Isabel Allende\u2019s beloved novel \u201cThe House of the Spirits<\/a>\u201d to the screen as a limited series for Amazon Prime Video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlegr\u00eda and Urrejola and \u201cHouse of the Spirits\u201d executive producer Eva Longoria<\/a> detailed the backstory of the eight-episode series during their keynote address May 1 at the National Association of Latino Independent Producers\u2019 Diverse Women in Media Forum. Variety gave \u201cHouse of the Spirits\u201d a rave review, <\/a>calling the Spanish-language adaptation \u201csensational, and long overdue.\u201d \u201cHouse of the Spirits\u201d bowed April 29.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Alegr\u00eda and Urrejola did not have a long track record of managing elaborate period productions, the faith that FilmNation and Longoria\u2019s Hyphenate Media showed in their vision for the Spanish-language adaptation and the support system they provided made all the difference.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really important when you have producers that believe in you and are protecting you and are sheltering you so that you can concentrate on just doing the best work,\u201d Alegr\u00eda said.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlegr\u00eda and Urrejola, who are partners in life and in producing, co-wrote the series and serve as showrunners and executive producers. Alegr\u00eda directed half of the show\u2019s eight episodes; Urrejola plays the key character of Blanca. Longoria was recruited as an executive producer by FilmNation because she had been vocal in the development community about her interest in adapting Allende\u2019s works. The Chilean novelist and human rights advocate has been prolific since she gained international acclaim for her 1982 debut with \u201cHouse of the Spirits,\u201d a sprawling tale of a family and political dynasty told in the magical realism literary form popular in Latin American in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have been obsessed with Isabel Allende, specifically \u2018House of Spirits.\u2019 Just her as a human being and a woman and a Latina that I look up to. You know, she started her writing career at 40 \u2014 at 40!\u201d Longoria said. \u201cAnd so when FilmNation came and they\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019d like you to sit with, with these two ladies, and they had a Bible, they had a look book, they had a vision a vision board presentation that was every frame was like a painting, you just knew that this book was in the right hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLongoria was blunt about her role in helping Alegr\u00eda and Urrejola. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was brought on to add my voice and my political capital in this town, to make sure it landed at the right place, that it got the support and the budget that it needed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tUrrejola, who is a well-known Chilean actor, told the crowd at the W Hollywood hotel that the working environment on the project, which shot in Santiago and other parts of Chile, mirrored the dynamic of the novel.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat is beautiful about this novel is that the female characters are so powerful because they are a woman. They\u2019re not trying to be like men in order to be powerful,\u201d Urrejola said. \u201cThat\u2019s the power of women. We create community. We really create culture in that sense, and we don\u2019t have to forget about that. And we\u2019re so lucky that we have our female producers along the way with us, helping us to put our vision forward. But again, the novel talks about that and our point of view. The entry point was the healing process of generational trauma. It\u2019s the granddaughter that is able to articulate what the previous generations couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlegr\u00eda credited the pair\u2019s experienced producing partners with helping guide them through the most unfamiliar process of preparing for the final cut and getting ready for the marketing, press, distribution conversations with Amazon as well as FilmNation. This was unfamiliar territory for the showrunners.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs independent filmmakers, working with such a big platform comes with knowing how to navigate. You you need to defend some things, and there\u2019s other things that you take the point of view of the platform,\u201d Alegr\u00eda said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLongoria reinforced this as an important point for the rising star producers in the room. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019ve got to pick the hill you\u2019re going to die on. I see so many young writers that I try to develop with, and they just dig their heels in on the wrong thing. Studios are not your enemies. Producers are not your enemies. You all want to make something, and you got to defend your vision, and know what you need to defend and know what you need to let go. And that is a talent in and of itself,\u201d Longoria said. \u201cThe platforms have information you don\u2019t. So use that information producers have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe session, moderated by Cynthia Littleton, Variety co-Editor in Chief, ended with a discussion of the growing film and TV production infrastructure in Chile. (Longoria dubbed it \u201cChile-wood.\u201d) <\/p>\n

\n\tBringing a national treasure like \u201cHouse of the Spirits\u201d to life in Chile was a dream come true for the pair, Urrejola said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m lucky enough to have worked in different parts of Latin America, and I can say that Chile has so, so much talent,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the landscapes \u2014 you can find everything you want in Chile. You can see white, standard, beautiful beaches \u2014 very cold, though. And then it will look like the Caribbean. And then you can go to the Patagonia, which is a completely different, unique landscape, and the desert we have. We\u2019re still fighting for the [production tax] rebate so we can make it even better, but we have co-production funds, and it\u2019s getting better. It was a thrill to work in Chile and to have that amazing crew with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(Pictured: Fernanda Urrejola, Francisca Alegr\u00eda and Eva Longoria at NALIP\u2019s Diverse Women in Media Forum, held May 1 at the W Hollywood.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was both magic and realism involved for the Chilean creatives Francisca Alegr\u00eda and Fernanda Urrejola, who brought…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[3281,93,18584,143117,143119,61,60,143121,282],"class_list":["post-431492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-amazon-prime-video","tag-entertainment","tag-eva-longoria","tag-fernanda-urrejola","tag-francisca-alegru00eda","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-house-of-the-spirits","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}