‘Like Water For Chocolate’ To Get TV Adaptation By Endemol Shine Studios

The popular Like Water For Chocolate is headed to the small screen. Endemol Shine Studios, the scripted division of Endemol Shine North America, has acquired the rights to Laura Esquivel’s best-selling novel Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate) to adapt as a global television franchise. The classic story is being developed as an English language series with plans to adapt it in other languages, as well.

Like Water for Chocolate was first published in 1989 by Esquivel, a first-time Mexican novelist and quickly became a global sensation. The use of magical realism alongside a raucous family drama made the book an instant classic. To date, Like Water for Chocolate has sold 3.5 million copies in the U.S. through publishers Knopf Doubleday (English) and Vintage Espanol (Spanish). The novel spent a year and a half on the New York Times Bestseller list and has been published in 45 languages.

In 1992, a film based on Esquivel’s screenplay adaptation of the novel was successfully released in Spanish, earning critical acclaim and numerous honors. The film earned 11 Ariel Awards from the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, including the Ariel for Best Picture and at the time became the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever released in the United States. It also was the Mexican entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards. You can watch a trailer below.

“It fills me with joy to know that Like Water for Chocolate will be brought to television screens throughout the world by a studio that bets on quality in producing content for each of its projects,” says Esquivel. “Of all the companies that offered to create the series, Endemol Shine Studios stood out in sharing a vision of Like Water for Chocolate closest to my own: leading from the heart.”

“The opportunity to adapt this beloved novel is a privilege, added Endemol Shine Studios President Sharon Hall. “Laura’s epic love story has all the ingredients of a breakthrough drama.”

The deal was negotiated by Esquivel’s reps, the Colchie Agency in New York on behalf of the Casanovas & Lynch Agency in Barcelona.