In Argentina, his presence in a project is enough for it to materialize, and in Spain his name is enough for the latter to attract attention. And although around the world many of his films have been released locally, particularly those that received an Oscar nomination, such as El hijo de la novia, Relatos salvajes, Argentina, 1985 and the one that win, El secreto de sus ojos , Ricardo Darín has not achieved the same global fame that he would have if he had developed his career in the United States.
Although he was invited in the early 2000s by Tony Scott to join the cast of El fuego de la venganza, shot in Mexico and with Denzel Washington and Christopher Walken playing the main roles, with such insistence that the legendary director didn’t take no for an answer, Darín never hid that he wasn’t very interested in working in English, probably because he always had a very busy schedule in his language. Now, thanks to the revolution that platforms have generated in the world of entertainment, it is very likely that he will be able to achieve this world fame without ceasing to film in Spanish.
At the moment, this son, father and brother of actors is filming in Buenos Aires the miniseries El eternauta , the long-awaited television adaptation of Hector G. Oesterheld’s iconic sci-fi cartoon that is being made by Netflix without considering the expenses. There he plays Juan Salvo, an ordinary man who witnesses with his family a snowfall, something in itself unusual in the Argentine capital, which changes his life forever. The snow will be the instrument of the extraterrestrial invaders to liquidate most of humanity. Those who survive will organize a brutal resistance against them, the beings from another planet who have organized the conquest, and their enslaved lieutenants, the Hands.
Although in the original comic, considered the most important that has been written in this South American country, the plot took place in 1963, the future for the Oesterheld of 1959, in the miniseries, which will have just six episodes, everything happens in the present. For now, very little is known about how the director and creator Bruno Stagnaro, who in the nineties stood out for the independent film Pizza, birra y faso and was also responsible for a couple of episodes of the miniseries Vientos de agua by Juan José Campanella, plans to develop the plot, especially considering that the comic had a couple of continuations and derivations, some without the participation of Oesterheld, who was kidnapped during the military dictatorship along with his four daughters, an incident from which only one of them returned alive.
It is quite likely that the TV version of The Eternal also addresses this true story, as Oesterheld himself included himself as a character in the original cartoon, and the version he did in 1969 with Alberto Breccia reflected the radicalization policy of the screenwriter, which ended up being added to the armed struggle.
Darín, who will go to Barcelona in November to present Secrets of a Marriage by Ingmar Bergman, directed by Norma Aleandro and then continue in Madrid, has no other projects for now, as Terra, Walter’s new film Rooms in which he had to share a poster with Gael García Bernal, has been left in limbo. After the global exposure that involved the triumph of Argentina, 1985 at the Golden Globes and the campaign for the Oscar, Darín has admitted that he is always open to new things and that he does not rule out a possible foray into cinematography in english In statements to Caras magazine, he pointed out: “If something that deserves some attention were to appear, I would consider it. I like to work, so I won’t look the other way, as long as it’s something that I feel is within my reach, because in another language, you have to measure the scope of what you have to do to don’t make mistakes”.
But in an interview with the writer of this for the site of the Golden Globes during the promotion of La odisea de los giles, Argentina’s candidate for the Oscar in 2020, Darín was honest: “I wouldn’t spend three months without seeing my wife and my children to do something that they tell you is a bomb because it doesn’t come from here and much less at this time of the game. This can happen to you when you live a long way, from your 30s to almost 40, with the benevolence that whoever accompanies you in your personal life is willing to accompany you along the way, but there are certain moments in life in which you are already a grown man. There is nothing I like more than being at home with my wife, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world”, he said then who is now 66 years old.
