Urdaneta’s 200% Media develops South American adventure race reality show

Dhana Media co-founder and chief creative officer Mari Urdaneta has set up new venture 200% Media and partnered with Belgium’s Eccholine on an adventure race reality show across South America.

Mari Urdaneta

Urdaneta has been behind projects such as Maradona: Blessed Dream for Amazon’s Prime Video and Su Nombre Era Dolores La Jenn Que Yo Conocí for Univision.

The fledgling firm has partnered with Ludo Poppe and Peter Van Den Bussche’s company Eccholine on Destination Tomorrow: The Backpack Race to Tomorrowland, in a joint venture with music festival Tomorrowland Brasil.

The show is an adaptation of Eccholine’s Peking Express and will see six music-driven duos from the US and Lat Am compete in a backpack race for over 40 days across six countries in South America for the chance to win a VIP experience to Tomorrowland Brasil.

Currently in the early development stages, the countries set to be included in the route are Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil. Production is set to start in July.

John Pollak is executive producing on behalf of Allied Management Group, while Poppe and Van Den Bussche will serve as executive producers under the Eccholine banner. Filip Teerlinck will serve as executive producer for Tomorrowland and Urdaneta will serve as executive producer for 200% Media with Bibiana Jimenez and Xianelly Guzman as creative leads.

Eccholine has previously managed productions of shows such as Ninja Warrior, Peking Express and Nomads. It is setting up in Malta to take advantage of its cash rebate scheme for reality and entertainment programming.

Urdaneta, who has also worked on an as-yet-untitled Calle & Poché docuseries for Prime Video that is due for release later this year, is CEO at 200% Media while Xianelly Guzman Is its development executive. The company will work across scripted and unscripted films and series in Spanish or English and focus on underrepresented artists with unique female and multicultural perspectives.