Modern Family ended in 2020. That show did great things for all of its stars, especially Sofia Vergara. Vergara became the “first lady of television” and the Latin-American community really embraced Sofia and her portrayal of an immigrant trophy wife with a heart of gold. Sofia was able to create lucrative side-projects off of her newfound stardom and I kind of assumed that would be her post-Modern Family business model. Jewelry lines, clothing lines, sponsorships and endorsements, maybe looking for another well-written sitcom at some point. But Sofia did something pretty smart, in addition to all of that. She teamed with a smart group of producers to develop a Netflix miniseries about a Colombian drug lord, Griselda Blanco. Now the project has come together:
Sofia Vergara is readying to play the Black Widow. In her first role since wrapping Modern Family, Vergara will be making a dramatic turn to play Griselda Blanco, the Colombian drug lord widely known as the “Black Widow,” for a six-episode limited series at Netflix titled Griselda. Vergara will also executive produce.
Griselda is the latest series from writer and executive producer Eric Newman under his overall deal at the streaming giant. Newman, who served as showrunner for five seasons of Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, remains an executive producer on the forthcoming third season of Narcos: Mexico. Doug Miro, Andrés Baiz and Carlo Bernard, who are all part of the Narcos creative team, will executive produce alongside Luis Balaguer; Baiz, a Colombia native, will direct all six episodes. Ingrid Escajeda (Justified, Empire) serves as showrunner.
Despite having the Narcos team attached, Netflix stresses that the series is not a spinoff from its popular drug cartel drama. (Any connection to the Narcos franchise would likely have elevated the costs of making Griselda.) The Colombia-born Vergara and Balaguer had been developing the project for eight years at their Latin World Entertainment banner before bringing it to Netflix. “Griselda Blanco was a larger-than-life character whose ruthless but ingenious tactics allowed her to rule a billion-dollar empire years before many of the most notorious male kingpins we know so much about,” says Vergara. “We are thrilled to have found the perfect partners in Eric, Andrés and Netflix to help us bring this story of her life to the screen.”
Despite her proximity to Pablo Escobar and the Medellín cartel, Blanco was never a featured character on Narcos. The female narco — who went by the names the Black Widow, La Madrina and the Cocaine Godmother — was one of the most powerful cocaine traffickers in the 1980s and a key figure in Miami’s drug wars. Her story has previously been told on the screen, including in the 2017 film Cocaine Godmother where she was portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Jennifer Lopez is also developing a Griselda Blanco project with STX Films called The Godmother.
This isn’t your mama’s cute, ditzy sitcom wife. Sofia will be ACTING! She’ll aim for an Emmy nomination to play a ruthless, murderous, treacherous drug lord. I’m really blown away by how forward-thinking this was for Sofia, and how long she’s been working to make it happen. Really smart to team up with the Narcos people and to bring it to Netflix. She’ll get to make the series the way she wants, and she’ll show off her range too.
Sofia Vergara is set to portray notorious drug queenpin Griselda Blanco in a new Netflix limited series.
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— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 3, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Good for her. It has to be better than the horrible movie with Welsh Catherine Zeta-Jones playing this woman.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her act in anything but Modern Family which I love. I’ll be ready to watch this new series, it’s got to be better than the CZJones version.
The only other thing that I’ve seen her in are the shampoo commercials with her son.
She looks nothing like Griselda, interesting casting choice
I wonder if this is her “I’m unmade up for the camera so I can get nominated for an award” role.
I have watched docu series about Griselda and, my god, they better not glamorize who this woman was and what she did.
The carnage was just astronomical.
I feel they way about any drug figure who gets a series. These people were dangerous and should be shown as such.
As a Colombian, I´m really tired of drug-lord stories. They are always on national and international tv. Please amof american people, you must understand the terrible damage this kind of tv made to the honest people of Colombia. Im kind dissapoint of Sofia.
I agree. JLo is already working on this story anyway. Ugh.
But is not Columbian
And Gyuo she is the sister of a man who was murdered by them ,and is the sister of another who is a crackhead
And this was her idea and she was trying to sell it for 8 years
Modern Family was one of the things that saved me during the worst parts of the pandemic (I had never seen it before), so the show and the cast will always be dear to me.
“it will be a long time before i bother you with my pillows” Gloria Prichett. I love her!
jlo must be seething. Netflix >> STX films
Sofia is an amazing sweet woman. I actually designed her footwear brand for Kmart and she came to our office periodically for line reviews. She is more beautiful and stunning in person, super nice, sweet and funny. We all loved her at the office.
She is also pretty cool actress and has range.
Hope this series works!
How neat! Thank you for sharing!!
Aw, I agree, thanks for sharing. And I’m so glad to hear that about Sofia, she just seems like a good person. Also, I thought she was all class and grace when dealing with her ex boyfriend’s unhinged lawsuits and stalking (not that there is any “right” way to deal with that kind of situation, but she had the money to fight it and never lowered herself to his scummy level in the press).
No thanks.
Latin America has so many stories to adapt. We’re literally the place where the genre of magical realism was born. We’re more than criminals, drug dealers, and cartels.
By only telling these crime stories, you’re tacitly supporting the xenophobia and racism we face thanks to the media portraying us as ignorant and deceitful lowlives.