The Borgia: -2006-2006 Exclusive
In 2006, Spanish director Antonio Hernández released the feature film Los Borgia
Rodrigo gestured to the wine. "The Orsini plot relies on the French ambassador turning a blind eye. If he is dead, they are angered. But if he is compromised... then he is ours." The Borgia -2006-2006
Elena Anaya’s Lucrezia is detached from the central action, often serving as a mirror to the men’s violence. In Los Borgia, she is less a femme fatale and more a political pawn who learns to play the game. Her tragedy is quieter: the realization that her body is merely a treaty to be signed, a border to be defended. In 2006, Spanish director Antonio Hernández released the
- The “Borgia Curse” of Timing: The production ran into legal delays with a competing US-International project also titled Borgia. While this earlier 2006 version had rights to European distribution, a US-based producer (later Tom Fontana) filed claims over the “Borgia” trademark for an English-language series, freezing the French-Italian show’s ability to sell to Netflix or BBC.
- Mixed Reviews: French critics praised its seriousness but called it “glacial.” Le Monde wrote: “Placido’s Rodrigo is a weary banker, not a devil. The sin is tedious.” Italian audiences, meanwhile, were offended by the depiction of a Spanish pope as corrupt, with Roman newspapers accusing the show of “anti-Italian bias.”
- The Showtime Elephant: By 2008, news broke that Showtime was developing a big-budget Borgia series starring Jeremy Irons. France 2 and RAI quietly shelved plans for a second season, allowing the option rights to lapse. The 2006 series was never released on DVD in Region 1 (North America), surviving only on European DVD (Region 2) and occasional reruns on French cable channel Paris Première.
