EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has tapped Game Night screenwriter Mark Perez to pen its Carmen Sandiego feature film that has set Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez to topline. No director is attached yet.
The streaming service acquired live-action film rights to the iconic 1990s property back in March with Rodriguez attached to the title role. It’s part of a full-court press for Netflix and the brand: Rodriguez also will voice the character in an animated series eyeing a release in 2019, when publisher and property owner Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will launch a a line of books timed to to premiere.
Rodriguez is also producing the Carmen Sandiego movie through her I Can and I Will productions alongside Kevin Misher and Caroline Fraser. Andy Berman of Misher Films is the executive producer. Misher Films also produced Miss Bala, the English-language reboot of the 2011 Mexican pic that stars Rodriguez and is directed by Catherine Hardwicke. That one has a January 25, 2019 release date.
Perez is coming off Game Night, the New Line comedy that has grossed $117 million worldwide since its February release. John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein directed the original script and the pic starred Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams and Kyle Chandler.
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Perez’s writing credits include the 2006 Steve Pink college comedy Accepted and 2002’s family pic The Country Bears. He’s repped by ICM Partners and Hansen, Jacobson.