Eugenio Derbez's new series 'Acapulco' premiere October 8 on Apple TV+

The comedy series, 'Acapulco' premieres on the Apple TV+ pay platform on October 8. It tells the story of Maximo Gallardo, a twenty-something whose dream comes true when he lands the job of a lifetime as a cabana boy at Acapulco's most popular resort.

He soon realizes that the job is much more complicated than he had imagined and in order to succeed, he must learn to navigate a demanding clientele, a fickle mentor, and a complicated family life, without losing his way to shortcuts or temptations.

The series is set in 1984 with Derbez narrating and playing the present-day version of the main character: Máximo Gallardo. The series also stars Enrique Arrizon, Fernando Carsa, Damian Alcazar, Camila Perez, Chord Overstreet, Vanessa Bauche, Regina Reynoso, Raphael Alejandro, Jessica Collins, Rafael Cebrian, Regina Orozco and Carlos Corona. The series was created by Austin Winsberg, Eduardo Cisneros, and Jason Shuman; Winsberg serves as showrunner alongside Chris Harris.

The group of directors for the different episodes includes Richard Shephard ('The Handmaid's Tale'), Jay Karas ('Brooklyn Nine-Nine'), Roberto Sneider ('You're Killing Me Susana'), Dean Holland ('The Good Place') and Tristram Shapeero ('Four Weddings and a Funeral'). The series comprised of half-hour episodes is written by Austin Winsberg ('Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist'), Eduardo Cisneros ('No Returns Accepted', 'Half Brothers'), and Jason Shuman ('Bad Example', 'Half Brothers').

The cast is headed by Eugenio Derbez, who is also the executive producer ('No se aceptan devoluciones'), Enrique Arrizon ('Las hijas de Abril'), Raphael Alejandro ('Once Upon a Time'), Camila Perez ('Gotham'), Chord Overstreet ('Glee'), Fernando Carsa, Jessica Collins ('Zero Dark Thirty'), Damián Alcázar ('La ley de Herodes'), Vanessa Bauche ('Amores perros'), Regina Reynoso ('Ahí te encargo'), Rafael Cebrián ('Narcos'), Carlos Corona ('Gringo'), Regina Orozco ('La casa de las flores') and Bianca Marroquin ('Eleanor').

This Lionsgate Television series, inspired by the blockbuster hit 'Instructions for Being a Latin Lover,' is produced by Lionsgate Television, 3Pas Studios (Eugenio Derbez and Ben Odell), and The Tannenbaum Company (Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, with the collaboration of Jason Wang and Austin Winsberg, Jason Shuman, Eduardo Cisneros, and Chris Harris) for Apple TV+.

Eugenio Derbez makes "Acapulco" his paradise

Although Eugenio Derbez has positioned himself strongly in the U.S. film industry by opening new dynamics and opportunities for Latino talent, the Mexican actor and comedian recognize that he has faced several processes that have led him to rethink what kind of stories he really wants to make in order to have a future with greater certainty and connection with a global audience.

Facing the premiere of his original series "Acapulco", which will show its first 10 chapters with the support of Apple TV+, Eugenio Derbez recalls in an interview with EL INFORMADOR how he managed to consolidate this series set in Mexico (filmed in Puerto Vallarta) and that will arrive on the streaming platform this October 8 with the international transmission in more than 100 countries beyond the United States and his native Mexico.

In addition to being his first bilingual series, Eugenio Derbez faced particular challenges to bring this story to the screen: "Máximo Gallardo", a Mexican millionaire who, through his memoirs, tells his nephew how the hotel "Las Colinas" changed his life in Acapulco and showed him that not all that glitters is gold because in this peculiar lodging facility he had to learn to cope with the needs of others even if they clashed with his own personal, family and social ideals.

Eugenio recalls that "Acapulco" was originally conceived as an extension of the story starring "Máximo Gallardo" in his film "How to Be a Latin Lover", however, the possibility arose to explore the essence and origin of this character from a more human and familiar perspective, taking as a reference the emotion and affection that Debez has had for Acapulco since his childhood.

"I always had a crush on Acapulco, I spent my entire childhood going to Acapulco, it was my happy place, I was more excited to go to Acapulco than to Disneyland, the beach, I learned to move my belly there," Derbez recalls with humor, pointing out that the memories he treasures of this tourist destination are true jewels in his life.

"The story was born out of the fact that we were filming 'Latin Lover' and why not make a series about what would have happened in the hotel, because 'Maximo' worked in a hotel when he was young, how many stories he must have lived there. When it came time to develop it I realized that the character (needed more depth), one of the things I fought like crazy in the film is that it had more heart, but they didn't understand me, it was my first film here (United States)".

After the dramatic comedy that Eugenio Derbez had presented in "No refunds accepted", his intention was to pose a story with the same touching and funny sense, but he was told that before the American audience this fusion of genres was not usual.

"They wanted it to be laughter, laughter, and laughter and that's it, but I wanted to put more drama in it and they wouldn't let me. When we were developing the series, I insisted that it had more depth, that it had heart, that it had other layers, so we decided to change the character of 'Máximo', to make him more complex, with more depth, with that duality", says Derbez when describing the personal dilemmas that the new "Máximo" would have when deciding which paths to take in order to better himself personally, economically and socially.

"These are things that happen to all of us, how many times do you say 'hey, they're giving me a lot of money for this, but it's not right, it's not what I like, but they're paying me very well, whether I do it or not, I wanted to reflect these kinds of things, that makes the series more interesting, fun, but it also has depth and heart".

Under this idea is how Eugenio Derbez and Apple TV+ managed to bring together an international cast headed by: Enrique Arrizon, Damián Alcázar, Raphael Alejandro, Camila Pérez, Chord Overstreet (Glee), Jessica Collins, Vanesa Bauche and Regina Orozco, among others.