What do you get when you mix one of the biggest names in movie production and storytelling, Ron Howard, and the Oscar-nominated Puerto Rican screenwriter of Los Diarios de Motocicleta, José Rivera? Imagine TV & Showtime Productions wondered the same, Deadline reports. The show will be called Conquest, a “sweeping period drama” that tells the story of famed Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés, who led the Spanish conquest in Mexico, and his clash with Moctezuma II, the last ruler of the Aztec Empire.
And since, according to the story, Moctezuma didn’t exactly like being conquistadored (the loss of an Empire being una jodienda, after all), audiences are probably expecting blood, gold, mythology, and probably boobs.
Don’t get me wrong, the story is very compelling, essentially two powerful men and their people confront each other in arguably the most pivotal era in modern history, La Conquista. But it’s always safe to be a little weary when production powerhouses ambitiously want to film something epic about the Spanish conquest or anything indigenous related (También La Lluvia trauma, anyone?). Though there isn’t much concrete info about the series, some commentators are wondering what the writers will base the screenplay on, seeing as Rivera has gotten pretty steady success from book to screen adaptations.
While we wait, let us wonder what the casting notice for extras in the series will look like. Quizás, like RedBull Panamérika‘s Colibritany, la flor-quinceañera más bella de Cocoyoc, Howard will be looking for some chambelans de caramelo, “suave por dentro y macizo por fuera.”