Catherine Zeta-Jones is set to play a criminal mastermind. The Oscar winner has signed on to star in Lifetime’s “Cocaine Godmother,” a biopic about Griselda Blanco, better known as the “Cocaine Godmother.” According to a press release from Lifetime announcing the film, Blanco’s drug distribution network spanned across the U.S. — and it’s not just her involvement with illegal substances that she’s known for. She is suspected of having ordered over 200 murders.
Scheduled to premiere in 2018 on Lifetime, the crime drama will explore Blanco’s extraordinary life. She was just 17 when she “made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband, Carlos. Living in Queens with her three sons, Griselda became enticed by the money the drug world offered, and quickly became embroiled with local drug runners,” Lifetime summarizes. “Griselda masterminded the use of beautiful women, the elderly, and children as the mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia. With money rolling in, her sons abandoned school and entered the family business instead.” She later re-located to Miami and California, and was arrested by the DEA in the latter. While she was sentenced to a decade in jail, the case against her “collapsed and upon her release, she was deported to Colombia, where she was ultimately gunned down in 2012.”
Joan Harrison (“Manson’s Lost Girls”) and Alisa Tager (“Enemy at the Gates”) are among the project’s executive producers.
Zeta-Jones’ casting is likely to cause some controversy. Blanco was Colombian and Zeta-Jones is Welsh.
Jennifer Lopez will also portray Blanco in a TV movie. The “Shades of Blue” actress is set to topline and executive produce an as-yet untitled HBO movie about her. “I’ve been fascinated by the life of this corrupt and complicated woman for many years,” said Lopez when the project was announced.
Zeta-Jones won an Academy Award in 2003 for “Chicago.” She was last seen in “Feud,” playing actress Olivia de Havilland.