Netflix is positioning this as a prestige historical drama of the highest caliber, with VP Francisco Ramos emphasizing their "commitment to Latin American storytelling of the highest caliber and quality." Larraín frames it as an artistic challenge: "a big and wonderful challenge: a war movie."
Insiders note this is Larraín's deepest dive yet into Chile's traumatic Pinochet-era past—a subject he's circled before in 'The Count' (where he made the dictator a 250-year-old vampire) but never tackled this directly. The ensemble features his entire Fabula stock company, with nary an outside name in sight.
Production begins H2 2026 for Netflix; covers September 11, 1973 coup through bombing of La Moneda Palace and Allende's death over 18 consecutive hours; features 11 intertwining stories. DP Rodrigo Prieto (Scorsese's 'The Irishman,' 'Killers of the Flower Moon') joins for first time alongside Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson.
Larraín isn't playing it safe—this is a filmmaker doubling down on his most controversial territory with an all-in approach from Netflix and his trusted inner circle. The question isn't whether it'll be powerful; it's whether audiences are ready to watch.
Pablo Larraín is assembling what promises to be his most visceral historical undertaking yet, and the gossip mill around Hollywood's Latin American division is buzzing. According to Variety, the "Spencer" and "Maria" director will kick off production on Netflix's "Once"—yes, that's 11—in the second half of this year, with a stacked ensemble of Chilean talent already locked in. The project traces 11 interconnected stories set during the catastrophic aftermath of Chile's September 11, 1973 military coup d'état.
But here's where it gets intense: Larraín is compressing these narratives into an 18-hour window that ends with the bombing of La Moneda Palace and the death of then-president Salvador Allende. "I'm now facing a big and wonderful challenge: a war movie," Larraín told Variety, signaling this won't be subtle meditation but full-throttle historical reckoning. The cast reads like a who's-who of Larraín's previous Fabula productions.
Alfredo Castro leads the charge—the director's most frequent collaborator appears again after working together on "The Count" ("El Conde"). Rounding out the ensemble are Marcelo Alonso, Roberto Farías, and Alejandro Goic (all veterans of "The Club"), Octavia Bernasconi and Fernanda Finsterbusch (from "The Pack"), plus Camila Milenka, Valentina Muhr, Marcial Tagle, and Lukas Vergara. Notably absent?
Any major international names—this is very much a Chile-centric operation. Behind the camera, Larraín has pulled in some serious firepower. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto joins for his first collaboration with the director, bringing credentials from Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman," "Killers of the Flower Moon," and "Silence." Production designer Guy Hendrix and Oscar-winning VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson—a Christopher Nolan regular making his Larraín debut—round out the technical dream team.
The screenplay comes courtesy of Larraín and frequent collaborator Guillermo Calderón, with Fabula's Juan de Dios Larraín and Rocío Jadue producing alongside executive producers Alejandro Wise and Mariane Hartard. Netflix's VP of Latin American original content Francisco Ramos didn't hide his enthusiasm, praising Larraín's track record with "The Count" and TV series "My Sad Dead" while hyping the new project's "original screenplay co-written with Guillermo Calderón is just extraordinary." This follows Netflix's successful partnership with Larraín on previous projects exploring Chile's fraught political history—notably "The Count," which reimagined military dictator Augusto Pinochet as a tortured 250-year-old vampire. Whether "Once" will lean into similar surrealist territory or play it straight remains to be seen, but given Larraín's appetite for provocative reinterpretations of traumatic national memory, audiences should brace themselves.
