Fox Searchlight Makes Rodrigo Garcia ‘La Corona’; Jose Rivera Will Adapt

As Rodrigo Garcia is currently readying himself for the Albert Nobbs shoot, Fox Searchlight is readying the Mother & Child director to perhaps next work from a Jose Rivera-penned adaptation of an Oscar-nominated Short Subject documentary La Corona. Julie Lynn, who’s been producing alongside Garcia since Nine Lives, will produce.

Gist: The feature film will be pulling from the short: I’ve included that “fuller” synopsis The contestants are murderers, guerrillas and thieves. The runner-up will cry when she doesn’t get the tiara, wiping her tears with a tattooed hand. The winner will be crowned Queen, but she won’t be invited on a press tour as a role model for young girls. Instead, she will be escorted back to her cell. This is a beauty pageant like no other, and it happens every year in the Women’s Penitentiary in Bogotá, Colombia. Read the rest.

Worth Noting: Garcia was one of the ten directors for the short-film omnibus, Revolución. Other helmers included Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Eimbcke, Amat Escalante, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá, Carlos Reygadas, Patricia Riggen

Do We Care?: Of the two names mentioned above, it’s Jose Rivera that engulfs the prospects of this project. If we think back to The Motorcycle Diaries, certain scenes from Trade and the prospects of On the Road, we think this might South American flavored specialist might do some good writing as a multiple-character perspective – but we’re slightly concerned about how the project might come across as jail bait with crowns and what language they’ll end up choosing.

Extra reading: Interview with the original doc filmmakers.