We've been aware of filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero (pictured above) and her company Luchagore Productions for several years, as Guerrero was catching attention with her short films. Her short EL GIGANTE was picked up by Shudder, and she contributed segments to the anthology films MÉXICO BÁRBARO and ABCs OF DEATH 2.5. Still, it was a major breakthrough when she was hired to make her feature directorial debut with CULTURE SHOCK, the 4th of July installment of the Blumhouse and Hulu series Into the Dark. That went so well that Guerrero was not only hired to direct an episode of the The Purge TV series for Blumhouse (her television directorial debut), but she has also signed a "first look" film and television deal with Blumhouse, under which she'll write and direct more feature films and television programming for them.
And now Guerrero has set up a genre project at Screen Gems, her first studio feature.
Guerrero is attached to direct an untitled film based on
Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, often shortened to Santa Muerte and Spanish for Our Lady of Holy Death, an idol in Mexican and Mexican-American folklore. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.
Santa Muerte is often depicted as a female version of the Grim Reaper, a cloaked skeletal figure holding a scythe.
Guerrero will be working from a screenplay written by her frequent collaborator Shane McKenzie. The hope is that this film will launch a franchise.
The Santa Muerte project is being produced by Mario Celaya, along with Jennifer Gibgot of Offspring Entertainment.
We'll be keeping a close eye on this one as it moves forward. I'm very interested to see how it's going to turn out.