Jennifer Lopez To Star As Colombian Drug Lord In ‘The Godmother’
Jennifer Lopez may have just turned 50, but the actress and singer isn’t slowing down.
The “Jenny From the Block” singer is set to star in the upcoming Hustlers film and, as Variety reports, will also star in the new STX biopic drama The Godmother.
J-Lo will also produce the film and sources claim she is also considering directing the project as well. It would be her first time as a director.
Her co-producers will be Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina, both of whom have worked with J-Lo on the films Maid in Manhattan and The Boy Next Door.
The film sees Lopez as Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug lord known as “The Godmother.” The movie will follow her life from her underprivileged upcoming in Colombia to her multi-billion dollar career as one of the world’s most notorious drug lords. Blanco was involved in the Miami cocaine scene in the 1980s and was murdered in her native country in 2012.
“I’ve been forever fascinated by the story of Griselda Blanco and jumped at the chance to play her on screen,” said Lopez about the project. “She is all things we look for in storytelling and dynamic characters – notorious, ambitious, conniving, chilling. In a genre dominated by legendary kingpins, I’m eager to shine a spotlight on this anti-hero and excited to partner with STX for the third time so we can bring this compelling, complicated story to life.”
"People underestimate me. They always have, and maybe that’s for the best. It’s fun to prove them wrong." Happy 50th birthday, @JLo! https://t.co/b5rwk0jJk4 pic.twitter.com/3SvLdVGPIE
— W Magazine (@wmag) July 24, 2019
The film will be written by Regina Corrado (Sons of Anarchy and The Strain) and Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos).
Hustlers, also by STX, will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7. It will hit theaters on September 13. Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Cardi B, Lili Reinhart and Keke Palmer also star in the film, which was co-produced by Will Ferrell and Lopez.
Lopez also has a number of other projects in the works. She will star in Marry Me, in which she plays a pop star who is jilted by her fiancé moments before their wedding at Madison Square Garden. The film follows Lopez’s character as she marries someone in the audience instead. It co-stars Owen Wilson, Sarah Silverman and John Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones.
She’s also slated to play Rose Alvarez in a live TV performance of the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie!
The singer is currently wrapping up her “It’s My Party” tour in Miami, followed by a handful of dates in Israel, Russia and Turkey.
