‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’: Joe Eszterhas Takes Virgin Mary Movie to Roma Downey and Mark Burnett

Last updated on: March 10, 2017 at 6:48 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Our Lady of Guadalupe’: Joe Eszterhas Takes Virgin Mary Movie to Roma Downey and Mark Burnett 2017-03-10T18:48:14-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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In 1531, poor Aztec Christian convert Juan Diego, 57, had several encounters in the Tepayac hill country of central Mexico with a beautiful woman surrounded by light, who spoke to him in his native tongue:

“My dear little son, I love you. I desire you to know who I am. I am the ever-virgin Mary, Mother of the true God who gives life and maintains its existence. He created all things. He is in all places. He is Lord of Heaven and Earth. I desire a church in this place where your people may experience my compassion. All those who sincerely ask my help in their work and in their sorrows will know my Mother’s Heart in this place. Here I will see their tears; I will console them and they will be at peace. So run now to Tenochtitlan and tell the Bishop all that you have seen and heard.”

Eventually, Juan Diego convinced the local bishop of the truth of his visions. The most dramatic sign was when the vision sent him to a hilltop in December to gather blooming Castilian roses, and bring them to the bishop, wrapped in his tilma, a poncho-style cape made of cactus fibers. When Juan Diego opened the tilma to spill out the roses, also imprinted on the fibers was a brilliantly colored depiction of the Virgin, just as Juan Diego had described her.

It hangs in Mexico City today, as vivid as it was centuries ago.

There have been movies and TV shows about the Guadalupe story before, but now there’s going to be a new one. Hungarian-born Catholic screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (“Basic Instinct,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Flashdance”) has taken a project called “Virgen de Guadalupe” or “Our Lady of Guadalupe” to LightWorkers Media, run by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett.

The film will then go to MGM through LightWorkers’ deal with the studio (Burnett is also president of MGM Television and Digital Group).

From Deadline.com:

The thought about writing a screenplay about Our Lady of Guadalupe came to him 14 years ago during what he calls his life-changing “Christian conversion.” The screenwriter would later write a book entitled Crossbearer to share his story about that moment sitting on the curb in his cul-de-sac in 2001 at his wits end after battling cancer and addiction. A man who was once the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood with a wild lifestyle was now feeling defeated, and found himself begging God for help. That’s when something other-worldly happened.

When he regained his health, Eszterhas traveled to Mexico City to do research and to pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe to help him become a messenger for God. The end result is the spec script that Lightworkers just picked up.

Eszterhas told Deadline that his wife, Naomi, inspired to write the script about the Blessed Mother as she herself, felt a closeness to her. Downey herself played the Blessed Virgin Mary in both Son of God and the TV mini-series The Bible.

Considering how beloved the story and image of Our Lady of Guadalupe are around the world, especially in the Americas, this may be one film that comes with a built-in global audience.

Image: Courtesy FX/Warner Bros.

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other home, as Social Media Manager at Family Theater Productions; and check out FTP’s Faith & Family Media Blog.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

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