Mendes to be ‘Queen’

Forget Revlon. Latino beauty Eva Mendes will be getting down and dirty as she changes things up, playing the one who’ll be throwing the punches in her next pic. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Mendes is set to star in Jonathan Jakubowicz’s Queen of the South, based on the bestseller by Arturo Perez Reverte. Mendes will be playing a Mexican woman who escapes to Spain after the murder of her boyfriend, only to become a powerful drug lord motivated to avenge her beau’s death. Jakubowicz will also direct Josh Hartnett and Ben Kingsley in what will be the helmer’s second feature. Hartnett will play a Marine, with Kingsley as a Russian businessman. Venezuelan director Jakuowicz’s first pic, Secuestro express, was released in 2005 and tells the story of a wealthy young couple who are kidnapped by three delinquents.  

Sandra Condito and Elizabeth Avellan are set to produce the pic, with Winchester Capital, Origen PC and Plural Entertainment as exec producers. International sales will be handled by Essential Entertainment, taking the pic to the Cannes market this month.

Mendes will be featured in the all-star cast of The Women, a remake of George Cukor’s 1939 film, to be released in October.  Mendes will also star in Frank MIller’s “graphic” film The Spirit alongside Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson, to be release in January 2009.

Warner Independent
Pictures was once backing the project but it has since been taken over by Winchester Capital. Filming begins in Mexico and Spain this September.