Orion Pictures Acquires Andres & Diego Meza-Valdés’ Horror Pitch “Casa”

Andres Diego Meza-Valdés’ project has found a new home…

Orion Pictures has acquired Casa, a horror pitch from the Latino sibling filmmakers, whose profile has been on the rise in genre circles after the success of their three shorts: BoniatoThe Room and Play Dead.

Andres & Diego Meza-Valdés

The Miami natives will be making their feature-film directorial debut with Casa, which is described as a socially conscious horror thriller with an intergenerational tale centering on a Latino family.

Diego said the project also reflects the brothers’ sense of heritage within the genre-film community: “My brother and I have been genre fans our whole lives growing up in Miami. We are excited that we get to make such a terrifying story with a filmmaker-supportive group and especially the Orion brand that we’re such fans of.”

The Meza brothers caught the eye of genre followers after Boniato premiered as part of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival’s Midnight section, where it was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize. They co-directed the 22-minute film with Eric Mainade.

The Sundance entry summary for Boniato: “An illegal migrant worker decides it’s time to move on from picking crops and find a better job. Little does she know, insidious supernatural forces have a different plan for her. Some borders aren’t meant to be crossed.”

Guerrero to Star in CBS’ Immigration Drama “In the Country We Love”

Diane Guerrero has gone Country

The 30-year-old Colombian American actress, a recurring guest star on Jane the Virgin, has partnered with executive producer/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, executive producer Ben Silverman and co-executive producer Paul Sciarrotta for In the Country We Love, a potential drama project for CBS.

Diane Guerrero

Guerrero is attached to star in the drama, which is based on her memoir. Jane the Virgin producer CBS Television Studios is the studio.

Written by Sciarrotta, In the Country We Love centers on a successful corporate attorney who starts taking pro bono cases for undocumented immigrants after her past as the child of deported parents is revealed by a family emergency.

Guerrero’s memoir In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, co-written with best-selling author Michelle Burford, chronicles Guerrero’s harrowing experience as a teenager.

She was 14 when her parents were taken from their Boston home by immigration agents and deported to their native Colombia while she was at school. From then on, Guerrero, who was born in the U.S., had to rely on the kindness of family friends.

Guerrero was named a White House Ambassador for Citizenship and Naturalization in 2015 and is an outspoken advocate for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform, having worked with Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mi Familia Vota, a nonpartisan Latino civic engagement organization to promote citizenship and voter registration.

This is the second broadcast drama project in development for next season that touches on the hot-button issue of immigration, along with The CW’s Casa, from Warner Bros Television and Berlanti Prods.

Guerrero is best known for her role as Maritza Ramos on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. She plays Jane’s (Gina Rodriguez) best friend Lina on Jane the Virgin.

The CW Developing Gonzalez’s Latino-Themed Drama Project “Casa”

Ed Gonzalez is coming home to The CW

Warner Bros Television and producer Greg Berlanti are developing the drama project Casa, which was co-penned by the Mexican American writer, for the network.

Ed Gonzalez

Written by Gonzalez and Jeremy Haft, the series will touch on the hot-button issue of immigration.

Casa centers on six siblings in a Hispanic family who have to band together to survive when their parents get unjustly deported.

Writing partners Gonzalez and Haft got a break when they were selected as the 2014 Fox Writers Intensive Fellows, leading to a script development deal with Fox Broadcasting Co and 20th Century Fox Television and a staffing job on the first season of the hit Fox drama Empire.

The CW has scored high marks for its depiction of illegal immigration and its toll on families in dramedy Jane the Virgin.

Gonzalez & Haft recently wrote the feature film All Eyez On Me, a biopic directed by Benny Boom about Tupac Shakur for Morgan Creek Productions.