Disney adapts 'Whisperer' for Telecinco

MADRID -- Disney Spain is entering into Spain's competitive primetime TV market teaming with Mediaset Espana to produce a local adaptation of CBS series "Ghost Whisperer." Titled "El Don de Alba," "Whisperer's" first international redo rolls from January in Spain and will air on Mediaset Espana's core channel Telecinco. Spanish actress Patricia Montero ("Yo soy Bea") plays Alba, in the leading role played by Jennifer Love Hewitt in the original show. With "El Don de Alba" Disney ups the ante on local TV production, marking the first fiction project directly developed by the studio in Spain for a general entertainment channel. On "Alba," Disney Spain also teams with Disney Media Networks Latin America, whose execs Fernando Barbosa and Leonardo Aranguibel share exec production credits alongside Spain's Marta Ezpeleta. Disney Media Networks Latin America brings to the table its six-year old know-how reversioning for the region U.S. skeins such as "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy" or "The Golden Girls." In 2010, Disney authorized Spanish TV production company Crystal Forest to develop the "Golden Girls" format for pubcaster TVE. Now, "El Don de Alba" has been commissioned directly by Mediaset Espana. "Whisperer," an ABC Studios original format, has been adapted to local auds tastes in both length -- Spanish TV primetime episodes extend up to 70 minutes -- and content, a sources said. Spanish film and TV helmer Belen Macias ("My Prison Yard," "The Lady") directs the series. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com