Since Occupy Wall Street exploded onto the scene a few years back, the idea of the one percent has been thoroughly imprinted into our national consciousness, with good reason. As the vast majority of regular working folks in the U.S. and around the world feel their pocketbooks squeeze, a privileged few live a life of luxury, leisure, and idle pleasure safe from violence and unrest.
It’s a tough situation, but anyone with an eye for a good story would probably see the potential for science-fiction gold in our difficult 21st century reality. Just make the barriers that divide the ultra rich from everyone else a bit more literal; change one percent to say, three percent, and replace the meritocratic “anyone can do it with a little hard work” rhetoric with a bizarre selection process wherein three percent of 20-year-olds are selected to cross over to “the other side” each year.
There you have it. The upcoming series 3% is the latest announcement from Netflix’s phase two plan for Latin American domination, this time from our Lusophone brothers and sisters in the great nation of Brazil.
The show started off as a low-budget web series back in 2011. It apparently garnered enough views to catch Netflix’s attention. The three-episode pilot is reasonably well-executed by creator Pedro Aguilera, but Netflix has understandably brought out the big guns for this one.
Academy Award-nominated Uruguayan-born cinematographer César Charlone (City of God, Blindness) will be at the helm in his third outing as director (previous credits include The Pope’s Toilet and one episode of City of Men), while Brazilian big screen veteran João Miguel (Xingu) will be acting alongside telenovela starlet Bianca Comparato (Sete Vidas).
Filming for 3% begins in early 2016 for a unspecified release date later that year.