Catherine Zeta-Jones whose career took off playing a Latina in The Mask of Zorro, has once again been cast as a Latina lead, this time in the Lifetime original movie, Cocaine Godmother. The film will be directed by Academy Award-Winning Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro. Zeta-Jones (Chicago) is not new to the world of Latino drug lords, as she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of a drug lord’s wife in the critically acclaimed Steven Soderbergh feature, Traffic. Cocaine Godmother is based on the life of drug lord Colombian druglord Griselda Blanco, in the Miami-based cocaine trade. The crime drama will go into production this year and premiere in 2018 on Lifetime.
Cocaine Godmother explores the complicated life of Blanco, who, at just 17, made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband Carlos. Living in Queens with her three sons, Griselda became enticed by the money the drug world offered, and quickly became embroiled with local drug runners. Griselda masterminded the use of beautiful women, the elderly and children as the mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia.
With money rolling in, her sons abandoned school and entered the family business instead. A move to Miami would further expand Griselda’s empire, and lead to the death of her second husband Alberto, giving the rise to her nickname, The Black Widow. Her willingness to use violence against her Miami competitors, led her rivals to make repeated unsuccessful attempts to kill her. In order to protect her youngest son with third husband Dario, Griselda moved to California where she was later arrested by the DEA and sentenced to a decade in jail. The case against her collapsed and upon her release, she was deported to Colombia, where she was ultimately gunned down in 2012. In her lifetime, Griselda’s drug distribution network spanned across the United States and she was suspected of ordering over 200 murders.
Cocaine Godmother is produced by Asylum Entertainment for Lifetime with Emmy Award-winning Steven Michaels, Jonathan Koch (The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe), Joan Harrison (Manson’s Lost Girls) and Alisa Tager (Enemy at the Gates) executive producing. Guillermo Navarro (Pan’s Labrynth, Narcos) will direct from a script written by David McKenna (American History X).
A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights for Cocaine Godmother.
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