Jonás Cuaron to Direct Bad Bunny in Sony’s ‘El Muerto’ From ‘Blue Beetle’ Writer Gareth Dunnet Alcocer (Exclusive)

“El Muerto” is the first Latino character to lead a Marvel film

Jonás Cuarón Bad Bunny El Muerto Garreth Dunnet Alocer

Jonás Cuarón (“Desierto”) is on board to direct Sony Pictures’ “El Muerto” starring Grammy Award-winner and mega recording artist Bad Bunny, also known as Benito A Martínez Ocasio, TheWrap has exclusively learned. Additionally, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer (“Blue Beetle”) is writing the script, which is in early development.

“El Muerto” is the first Latino character to lead a Marvel film, and the antihero character is also known as Juan Carlos Estrada Sanchez, the son of a luchador who finds himself next in line to inherit the ancestral power of “El Muerto,” which is the powers and a mask worn by a super-powered wrestler.

The character appeared in a Spider-Man comic in which the luchador wrestler attended a charity event organized by J. Jonah Jameson in which he hoped that El Muerto would defeat Spider-Man and unmask him in the ring.

“El Muerto” is part of a series of films based on Marvel characters that Sony is developing with varying degrees of connection to the main “Spider-Man” universe. Coming up next for Sony Pictures universe of Marvel characters is JC Chandor’s “Kraven the Hunter,” starring Aaron Taylor Johnson, to be released in theaters on Oct. 6, 2023, and SJ Clarkson’s “Madame Web,” starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney, will be released on Feb. 16, 2024. Madame Web is a clairvoyant whose psychic abilities allow her to see within the spider world itself. This is the story of how she came to be.

Bad Bunny recently made his scene-stealing film debut in the “Bullet Train” from director David Leitch and starring Brad Pitt, also from Sony.

Sony Pictures will theatrically release “El Muerto” on Jan. 12, 2024.

Jonás Cuaron is the son of filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron who co-wrote and made his directorial debut with immigration thriller “Desierto,” which starred Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The film won the International Critics’ Award at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival. He also co-wrote “Gravity” with his father.

Dunnet-Alcocer has become one of the town’s hottest go to writers for Latino projects and recently wrote the upcoming DC / Warner Bros movie “Blue Beetle,” for which he’s getting sole credit and which will be the first stand alone Latino superhero film, and the start of a new franchise.

He previously wrote “Let It Bleed” for Alfonso Gomez Rejon to direct with Ken Kao and Kevin Misher producing, as well as the remake of “Scarface” for Universal with Antoine Fuqua directing. Dunnet-Alocer was originally best known for writing the English language adaptation of “Miss Bala” for Sony. He received sole credit, the film was released in 2019 and was directed by Catherine Hardwicke. On the TV side, he is co-creating “Giant” for Amazon with Anonymous producing and Alfonso Gomez Rejon directing.

Cuarón is repped by UTA. Alcocer is repped by WME and Redefine Entertainment.

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