A robbery, Dalí and a series: this is how Álex Pina was inspired to create La Casa de Papel

The Money Heist premiered the first part of its final season last Friday. It seems incredible that the series is one step away from finally ending, but it is. The Spanish show was presented in 2017 with few expectations and, little by little, (it must be said, thanks to Netflix) became a nonstop phenomenon, especially in Latin America, of course. But behind this story of robberies and a lot of suspense lies Alex Pina, a screenwriter with vast experience in television.

So much so that when he made The Money Heist, came from doing Paco’s men and Vis a Vis, just to name a few. But the truth is that the show starring Alvaro Death and Úrsula Corberó have a “I do not know what” very special that, somehow, captivated audiences much more than any of his other scripts.

Partly The Money Heist it has some reality. One of the inspirations of Pina and the entire scriptwriting team was a robbery that occurred in Brazil more precisely in the city of Criciuma, where the criminals used masks of Salvador Dali, the celebrated Spanish painter. But it is also true that it was a masterful move. According to Pina himself, they chose Dalí because he is a true pop icon and is “recognizable” for generations despite time.

“You never forget his mustaches. We realized he was the perfect image for those muggers.. Dalí’s face was chosen because it was the most powerful in terms of strength and image and also known to everyone“, expressed in dialogue with The nation from Argentina a few years ago.

And there is more. You cannot be a writer without having read a single book and you cannot be a screenwriter without watching movies or series. In this sense, it was almost manual that Alex Pina He had used multiple references to popular culture in the series, but there was one in particular that, in a way, inspired him to create the story. Breaking Bad served as a great muse of The Money Heist.

After the good reception of Paco’s men, things got a bit difficult for Pina. They say that it is not as difficult to achieve “success” as to maintain it, in terms of the successful postmodern society in which we live, and let’s say Pina something like that happened to her. The comedy Welcome to Lolita was released in 2014, but with only 8 episodes, Antenna 3 decided to cancel it immediately.

It was then that Pina realized that something had to change. For exactly six months, he locked himself in his apartment room to watch the series of AMC, Breaking Bad And, apparently, that changed his life and, yes, also the way he wrote, according to his own words. It is no coincidence that his later work was Vis a Vis and later on The Money Heist.

For Pina the balance that makes the show starring Bryan Cranston Between what is right and what is wrong or, at least, in what seems to be it, that double rod that exists in the life of any person served to capture it in some way in the stories of their shows. And it was not bad for him. Vis a Vis ended after 4 seasons and The Money Heist ends in December with 5 amid total euphoria.