By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The director behind Blumhouse Television’s acclaimed CULTURE SHOCK is getting ready to helm her follow-up, and has her star.
Adriana Barraza (pictured), who landed Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for 2006’s BABEL and has also been seen in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, THE STRAIN, DRAG ME TO HELL and many other features and TV series, will star in BINGO, an upcoming entry in Blumhouse and Amazon Studios’ WELCOME TO THE BLUMHOUSE film franchise. Gigi Saul Guerrero will direct from a script she wrote with Shane McKenzie and Perry Blackshear (THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE, THE SIREN). The synopsis: “In the barrio of Oak Springs live a strong and stubborn group of elderly friends who refuse to be gentrified. Their leader, Lupita [Barraza], keeps them together as a community, a family. But little do they know, their beloved bingo hall is about to be sold to a much more powerful force than money itself.”
Barraza’s character is further described as “a strong and stubborn ‘chingona’ [bad-ass] who grew up in the barrio of Oak Springs, a neighborhood formerly full of crime and dangerous characters. Lupita has dedicated her life to cleaning up the neighborhood, and creating a community the residents could be proud to call home.” Other entries in the 2021 WELCOME TO THE BLUMHOUSE lineup include Axelle Carolyn’s THE MANOR, Maritte Le Go’s BLACK AS NIGHT and Ryan Zaragoza’s MADRES; go here for more details.