The trailblazing actress America Ferrera (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ugly Betty) has been pinned to executive produce and star in a new series for Amazon MGM Studios entitled Naked by the Window, adapted from a novel by Robert Katz (Law Abiding Citizen, The Painted Veil). According to Deadline, the series has arrived at the studio to be developed after winning a bidding war. The book, published in 1990 and based on a true story, chronicles the life of Ana Mendieta (Nile Born, Tree of Life).
Mendieta was a Cuban artist known for her influential impact on the art scene in New York; the series will follow the problematic trial of her husband, sculptor Carl Andre (Equivalent VIII, 2nd Steel Square), who was on trial for her swift and truly tragic death. Charise Castro Smith (Encanto, The Pilgrim & The Private Eye) is set to write the series and executive produce alongside Plan B and Ferrera.
Deadline notes that Mendieta is considered one of the most prominent Cuban-American artists of the post-WWII era. She is celebrated for her revolutionary work in land art, performance art and sculpture. Mendieta is also well-known for her work that studies feminism, identity and the relationship between the earth and the human body. Her most well-known art series is entitled “Silueta,” in which she utilized her silhouette as art to portray elements of fire, earth and rocks.
Mendieta passed away in 1985 at the age of 36 when she fell from Carl’s 34th-floor apartment.
The SAG, Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Ferrera has been riding the “pink” wave and is on the brink of an Oscar nomination after portraying Gloria in the Warner Bros’ monster hit Barbie.
As per Deadline, Ferrera also has a feature directorial debut on the horizon. The actress is currently working on another project with Amazon MGM Studios, but this time, it’s a film with the studios’ Orion Pictures entitled I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Ferrera is also slated to star with Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar, Dallas Buyers Club) this week in The Lost Bus, an Apple drama by Paul Greengrass (United 93, Bloody Sunday) about California’s deadly Camp Fire back in 2018. Other upcoming works for Ferrera include a film entitled Elio by Pixar, where she voices a prominent character.
Also, according to Deadline, Smith, best known for co-directing and co-writing Encanto, the Disney Oscar-winning animated film, has worked on several producing and writing teams of series such as The Exorcist, Sweetbitter and The Haunting of Hill House. Before her work on those series, she wrote on Devious Maids.
Ran by Jeremy Kleiner (Moonlight, Selma), Brad Pitt (Fight Club, Moneyball), and Dede Gardner (High School, Feud), Plan B is behind the musical drama by Paramount in theaters now Bob Marley: One Love. Other Plan B projects include Wolfs, a thriller by Apple/Sony starring George Clooney (The Ides of March, Michael Clayton) and Pitt, and the anticipated film Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, to name a few.
Plan B also produces 3 Body Problem, an upcoming sci-fi series for Netflix from the creators of Game of Thrones, Alexander Woo (True Blood, The Terror), David Benioff (25th Hour, Gemini Man) and D.B. Weiss (Metal Lords, The Chair) which is set for debut on March 21st.
Ferrera is represented by Hamilton Hodell in the UK and Peikoff Mahan with CAA. McKuin Frankel Whitehead and UTA represent Smith.