As the saying goes “When one door closes, another one opens”. Such seems to be the case for writer/producer Cynthia Cidre. Coming off the now cancelled TNT series Dallas, Cidre was soon swooped up to co-executive produce and show run ABC’s new fall drama series Blood and Oil which will air on Sunday nights at 9pm. If that was not enough good news, she has just inked a an overall development deal with ABC.
Her immediate project Blood and Oil stars Don Johnson (Nash Bridges) in his TV comeback role of Hap Briggs and Chase Crawford (Gossip Girl) and chronicles he biggest oil discovery in American history. Her Dallas gig makes he a perfect choice to run this show, except now the oil business will be in North Dakota.
Cidre career writing career began in the late 70’s when she wrote several screenplays, one of them being the 1991 MGM feature Fires Within (starring Jimmy Smits, Luis Avalos, and Vincent D’Onofrio) about a Cuban political prisoner released after years and is reunited with his wife and daughter in Miami. She also wrote the film that would launch the U.S. career of Antonio Banderas in America, which we all took notice of because of his steamy performance as one of the leads in the The Mambo Kings.
However, ten years ago she met Nina Tassler, who at that time was executive VP of CBS’ drama series development (she is now CBS Entertainment Chief) and Cidre’s television career work clicked at CBS where three of her script were picked up as pilot, including Cane the story of internal power struggles of a powerful and wealthy Cuban-American family running a successful rum and sugar cane business in South Florida which starred Jimmy Smits, Nestor Carbonell, Hector Elizondo, and Rita Moreno among the mostly Latino cast.
A diverse cast always seems to be a wining formula in Cidre’s projects. In Dallas, which ran from 2012 to 2014, the cast included series regulars Jordana Brewster, Julie Gonzalo along side Larry Hagman, Jesse Metclafe and Patric Duffy, with recurring roles for Marlene Forte and Kuno Becker. Latinos also fared well in the many guest starring roles that were open to them in the three year run of Dallas. It did after all take place in Texas, not seeing Latino faces would have just seemed wrong, and Cidre understands this.
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