Saldaña Inks Deal with Lionsgate’s Pantelion Films

Zoë Saldaña could be producing more Latino projects in the near future…

The 35-year-old Puerto Rican/Dominican-American has inked a deal with Lionsgate, the independent film and television distribution company, to develop further content for the Hispanic market.

Zoe Saldana

Lionsgate’s Pantelion Films studio will start producing film and television projects with Saldaña Productions, a company run by Zoe and her sister Cisely, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“We look forward to a fruitful and productive relationship with Pantelion,” the Avatar star said in a statement.

Pantelion Films, the first major Latino-focused Hollywood studio, was launched in 2010 in partnership with Mexico’s Grupo Televisa. Two years later it teamed up with Televisa to create English-language TV content with Latina flair.

Last December, Saldaña’s production company teamed up with producers Jane Startz and Aida Bernal to option Joy Castro’s mystery thriller Hell or High Water.

Saldaña to Bring Joy Castro’s “Hell Or High Water” to Life…

Zoë Saldaña is looking to bring a mystery novel to life…

Saldaña has teamed up with producers Jane Startz and Aida Bernal to option the mystery thriller Hell or High Water.

Zoe Saldana

The 34-year-old half-Puerto Rican & half-Dominican American actress and her sister Cisley’s Saldaña Productions will work with Jane Startz Productions and Bernal’s Spellbound Entertainment to bring the novel to the screen.

The companies are currently trying to figure out whether Joy Castro‘s debut novel will be made into a feature or a television series.

Hell or High Water follows New Orleans reporter Nola Céspedes as she is dragged into the city’s post-Katrina underworld on the trail of what she thinks will be her big scoop. The novel was released July 17 by Thomas Dunne Books and was named one of the best books of 2012 by The Kirkus Review.

Hell or High Water

Saldaña is starring in the upcoming J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek Into Darkness, which will be released on May 17, 2013.

She’ll next be seen alongside Clive Owen in Blood Ties, directed by Guillaume Canet.